


Hundred Moments

by esama



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, BDSM, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-13 04:10:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 34
Words: 86,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2136510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Your second other self. I suppose it couldn't have happened to anyone else."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heal

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on ffnet around 2012  
> Proofread Darlene and Cyrallia

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle isn't in control when the phone call comes, but he learns of it at almost exactly the same time as Yugi does, his host's emotions and thoughts echoing themselves so powerfully through their joined hearts that anything else would've been impossible. As he rouses from his momentary rest in the maze of the Puzzle, the words from the outside world echo along the endless corridors.

"But that's not possible!" his partner's voice objects confusedly. "I'm _here_ , and not hurt."

"I can see that, Yugi," Grandfather Sugoroku's voice answers, amused and puzzled. "It might be that it's some sort of mistake or misunderstanding. Have you lost your wallet or maybe some card that might have your identification on it?"

"No, I don't think so?" Yugi answers. "No, I'm sure I haven't. I visited a store just yesterday and it was all there. And I was re-organising the receipts later on when I came home and I know I would've noticed if something was missing."

"Hm. Well, there are still some other possibilities. The worst of which is that someone is out there, pretending to be you," Grandfather Sugoroku says worriedly, and the spirit perks up at that, now concerned. Someone was pretending to be his partner?

"What should we do?" Yugi asks quietly.

"Learn more about this, obviously. I'll go to the hospital, see what this is about – figure out who this person is," Sugoroku says, and the spirit can sense him moving away from his partner. "You stay here and –"

Yugi's soul rises like a wave in objection and for a moment the spirit of the Puzzle is overwhelmed with the urge to take over, like he does every time Yugi is so powerfully affected. But this isn't the time. Outside, Yugi words his objections.

"No way! If there's someone out there pretending to be me, then I want to know more too! And besides, won't you need me there to prove it to people? I mean, if this person is pretending to be me, and if the authorities believe him…"

Sugoroku doesn't answer immediately. In the pause, the spirit shakes the urge to take control. Instead, he pushes forward, quickly breaking the thin veneer of space between him and Yugi and the outside world, taking the intangible form of a ghost only Yugi can see.

 _'My other self,'_ Yugi thinks at the sight of him.

The spirit nods, looking between his scowling partner and Grandfather Sugoroku, who is eying Yugi thoughtfully. "I heard you talking. What is going on?"

 _'Grandpa got a call from the hospital. They said that_ I've _been admitted to the hospital after some people found_ me _unconscious on a street or something,'_ Yugi answers.

The spirit frowns and looks at Sugoroku while Yugi speaks. "I have the right to see whoever it is!"

"Yes," the old man says after a moment. "I suppose you do. Well then, go and get your jacket – and your wallet, in case we need to show your ID or something – and we'll head to the hospital."

"Alright!" Yugi says, nodding and then dashing up the stairs, the spirit following closely after him with a worried frown. A person who people thought was Yugi? That was worrying enough without the fact that the hospital staff had called Sugoroku. Where had they gotten the phone number? From the hospital records, or had the impostor been carrying it, somehow?

"Take the deck, too," the spirit advises his partner when Yugi gets his wallet from the desk. He doubts that they'll need it in a hospital, but one never knew – and his magic works best with Duel Monsters these days. Better to be overly cautious now, than sorry later.

"Yes, my other self," Yugi answers, taking the deck holster from where it hangs hooked on the bedpost. With swift, accustomed motions, he buckles it on before reaching for his deck and slotting it into the holster. "The disk, too? They might not let me carry it into the hospital, though. Hologram technology sometimes interferes with other machinery, after all, and I've heard they've banned most Kaiba Corp. gaming systems from places like hospitals."

The spirit hesitates and then shakes his head. He can use the deck without the disk; the disk merely makes it easier. "It is fine," he assures. "Hurry now, before Grandfather Sugoroku leaves without you."

"Right," Yugi nods. After checking that he had his wallet securely in his pocket, he grabs his jacket and then hurries downstairs where Sugoroku is already waiting for them. Together, with the air saturated with tension and worry, they lock the game store and head out, the spirit following silent and unseen after Yugi, already mentally considering the deck and the many ways he can use it to defend his partner.

The drive to the hospital is too long and too short at the same time, and by the time they make it there, the spirit has come up with ways to counteract only about ten potentially threatening scenarios. There's so little – infuriatingly little – he can do to defend Yugi from things that are _official_ and _part of the_ _system_. The world around them is stranger and more interconnected than the spirit had originally realised, and now things like _legal documents_ and _identification_ and _laws_ and so on loom over his head.

Not to mention things like _lawsuits_ and _criminal justice_ – the main reasons as to why he nowadays duels those who hurt Yugi with holograms, rather than magic.

But this isn't the time. Yugi and Grandfather Sugoroku are now entering the hospital building, and the spirit follows, hovering as close to Yugi as he can without being overly smothering. Yugi says nothing about it, though – too focused on what might be coming.

Sugoroku asks about the patient that calls himself _Mutou Yugi_ and is pointed to a certain room in a certain ward, and told to talk to the attending doctor – because apparently, _Mutou Yugi_ has yet to regain consciousness.

They find the doctor easily enough – the man is in the hall just outside the room where the impostor is, talking to a nurse. "Doctor Tanaka?" Grandfather Sugoroku asks, bowing. "I'm Mutou Sugoroku. You called me about my grandson?"

"Yes, of course," the doctor says, and bows in return. "Firstly, let me tell you that your grandson is completely stable and in no danger, and aside from the bump that caused him to lose consciousness, there is nothing physically wrong with him. We're expecting him to regain consciousness any moment now."

"Well… that's good to hear," Sugoroku says while Yugi fidgets and the spirit glares at the closed door, worried. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"We don't know," the doctor says with a frown. "We know that he hit his head, but it's hard to say how. He wasn't attacked as far as we can tell, and he still seems to have all his personal effects, and his wallet still seems to have all his cards and money…"

The spirit listens to the speculation with half an ear, turning his gaze from the door to his partner, who fidgets a bit longer, squeezing the hem of his jacket in his hands before finally bursting out, "Can we see him?"

"Yes, of course," the doctor says, looking at him with surprise. "Your… brother? He's just in that room over there. You can go ahead and go in so as long as you don't jostle him. Though there's no sign of a concussion, he might experience some nausea and will most definitely have quite a headache when he wakes up and –"

But Yugi isn't listening, and neither is the spirit as he hurriedly follows Yugi to the door, and then into the room. There are three beds in the room, two of which are empty, and in the third one lies a unconscious man, maybe in his mid-twenties who…

"Oh my god," Yugi murmurs while the spirit stares, dumbfounded, at the man – at the hair, the skin, the facial features. The man's been dressed in hospital pyjamas, but the spirit can see a set of clothing sitting on the table beside him, most of them leather, with several silver studded belts rolled up on top of them.

"Oh… my god," Yugi says again, taking a cautious step forward and then a few more, until he comes to the foot of the bed – the spirit following him every step of the way. "He looks just like –"

"But how?" the spirit asks, shifting closer than Yugi dares to, to look at the unconscious man's face closer. The hair is unmistakeable – the exact shape and cut of Yugi's hair, right down to the errant lock in the middle and the spikes sticking up in the back.

"What the -" the spirit hears Grandfather Sugoroku gasp somewhere behind him. Then the old man comes forward, also to have a closer look while the spirit cautiously reaches out to touch the unconscious man's shoulder.

His hand rests on the man's flesh solidly – it feels firm and warm through the pyjama top. "Partner," he says, turning to look at Yugi. "I can feel him." The effect of the words is as profound on Yugi as the touch is on the spirit. The unease and shock is instant, as is the worry and wonder.

"He… you said he had all his effects. Where?" Grandfather Sugoroku asks, turning to the doctor.

"On the table – his wallet and phone are in the drawer," Doctor Tanaka says, and Sugoroku quickly opens it to retrieve a familiar black leather wallet. Yugi and the spirit of the Puzzle both shift closer to see as Sugoroku opens the wallet and quickly goes through the cards there.

The only identification in the wallet is a sort of business card, completely pitch black with golden text, with the name Mutou Yugi on the top, and an email address and phone number below it. There is another card, though, with emergency contact numbers on it – the topmost of which is titled as _Maternal Grandfather and Medical Proxy, Mutou Sugoroku,_ followed by a phone number and address.

The spirit frowns with worry while Yugi and Grandfather Sugoroku exchange looks.

"Does everything look to be there?" the doctor asks.

"Yes… yes, it seems to be," Sugoroku says, closing the wallet and turning to the doctor. "You said that he's expected to wake up any moment?"

"Yes. There is very little wrong with him physically, and he's been given some stimulants to ease his way back to consciousness," the doctor said. "Once he wakes up, we'll know more."

"Alright. Thank you. Can we stay here and wait until he –"

"Yes, of course. Just make sure to inform someone once he wakes up. There’s a button over there; just press it and a nurse will come," the doctor says. "I have other patients to attend to, now, so please excuse me…"

The spirit watches the doctor until the door closes after the man and then turns to look at Yugi, who is staring at his unconscious, elder counterpart.

"Is this possible? How is this possible?" Yugi asks, turning to Sugoroku and then to the spirit. "Do you know, my other self?"

The spirit shakes his head, frowning. "It is not possible with shadow powers, not as far as I can tell," he says, folding his arms. The man on the bed looks human, feels human – and had he been anything else, the hospital staff surely would have noticed. So he is not a magical duplicate of some sort.

"Hmm," Sugoroku hums and then steps closer to take the unconscious man’s hand, where a needle has been sunk into the skin on the back – IV line, the spirit recalls vaguely from Yugi's knowledge. As they watch, Sugoroku turns the man’s hand until he can see the man's fingers – dotted and peppered with shiny white scars, with the fingertips of middle and forefingers and thumb completely burned off.

Gasping, Yugi and the spirit both lift their hands and look at them. They have the exact same scars – Yugi's scars from the second time he had completed the Puzzle, while inside a burning building. The Puzzle and the chain it hangs on had both been so hot that Yugi's fingerprints had been burned off.

While Sugoroku examines the man's hand, Yugi puts his own beside it and compares the scars. An exact match. "Can't be," Yugi whispers. "That's not possible. Is it?"

"Not with magic, it isn't," the spirit says, leaning in.

"Maybe not, not as far as we know. But you seem to match perfectly," Sugoroku says, deaf to the spirit's words as he prods at the burned fingertips. "These are all very real, and it would be nearly impossible to copy these scars. A person would need a cast of your hand to do it, Yugi, and even then, the process of burning the exact same scars on their own hand, line for line…"

"But…" Yugi starts and then frowns, glancing at the spirit who looks back with some unease. "Well, it's not the strangest thing that has ever happened to me, but… _how_? My other self says that it couldn't be done with magic," he says, turning to Sugoroku. "And there's nothing else that could do it, right?"

"Well, not right now, there isn't. But…" the old man lowers the unconscious man's hand and folds his arms. "I'd say he's about twenty five – maybe older, it's always hard to tell with you. Technology is advancing fast these days. Eight or more years from now… well, who knows what sort of things people might have."

Technology? Technology that could do things magic couldn't? The spirit frowns and then has to admit how very possible it is. Kaiba is already doing things only magic had been able to do for thousands of years – and it had taken him only a few months to create hologram technology out of _nothing_. Eight years from now… "The phone," the spirit suddenly remembers. "Didn't the doctor say that he had a phone?"

Yugi blinks and then quickly moves to the table, opening the drawer again and pulling out a… rather strange looking device. It doesn't _look_ like a phone, though neither Yugi nor the spirit has much experience. It looks more like a small tablet, actually, completely black, taken over by a screen from one side, and on the other…

"I think this is an h-pad," Yugi murmurs, running his finger over the white, faintly glimmering line that ran lengthwise along the mobile phone.

"A what?" Sugoroku asks, leaning in to look.

"H-pad. It's part of the Duel Disks and all other Kaiba Corp. tech that uses holographic projections. The h-pad is basically the part that projects the hologram – it's this thing that makes it possible," Yugi explains, poking the white line. "I've never seen one this small."

They spent a moment examining the phone, coming to the conclusion that not only does it have the ability to project holograms, but it also has _two_ cameras in it, one on the back and other on the front. And though none of them is that well-versed with mobile phones, they can all see how very advanced this model is – beyond anything any of them has seen before, certainly.

"So… he could be, uh… my future self?" Yugi asks uncertainly, looking between the man on the bed and the spirit, who looks back uneasily, not sure what to say to that. It seems likely and yet so very unlikely. And yet, the proof is there, right in front of their eyes – indisputable.

Grandfather Sugoroku considers it for a moment, and then snorts. "Your _second_ other self," he says and shakes his head. "I suppose it couldn't have happened to anyone else."

While Yugi pouts, the spirit of the Puzzle looks towards the unconscious man, frowning at him and wondering. Yugi really does seem to be the one to whom all the strange things always happen – and in this scenario, he's experiencing the _strange_ thing twice over, as his own younger and older self. But, why? How?

The spirit glances away from the man, towards the bedside table. The belts are there – one of which he now recognises; it's the deck holster – but there is something missing.

Where is this future-Yugi's Millennium Puzzle?


	2. Do Not Disturb

As they settle down to wait, Yugi drags one of the chairs from near the window so that his other self can sit down as well – his _spiritual_ other self, at any rate. His, uh… future self is still lying on the bed, unconscious – still strange and foreign and disturbingly familiar.

"Will I grow up to look like him?" Yugi wonders out loud, tilting his head a bit and examining the man's face. It's familiar, yes, but a bit different, too. The structure is the same, but… the man's lost the roundness his face still has – lost the accursed baby fat Yugi himself can't seem to get rid of. It makes the man's cheekbones look higher, his face seem longer, leaner – and not all that bad, if Yugi says so himself.

"If so, then you'll grow up taller than I thought," Sugoroku says, following the bed with his eyes. "I'd say he's about a hundred and seventy centimetres tall. You'll have some growth spurts ahead of you."

"Aww, still not as tall as Kaiba," Yugi mutters, but with secret elation. A hundred and seventy! That, that's… so, so much better than he had feared. He hadn't seemed to be growing at _all_ in the last couple of years while all his friends had shot up like freaking trees, leaving him as not just the shorty of the group, but looking like someone from _kindergarten_ when standing beside them.

A mental chuckle reaches him and Yugi shoots his _spiritual_ other self a glare. _'Shut it.'_

"I didn't say anything, partner," the spirit of the Puzzle says with an innocent little smile.

 _'You were thinking about it,'_ Yugi mutters mentally, narrowing his eyes as the spirit just chuckles again before sighing and turning his eyes to the unconscious man. His future self – maybe. It might all still be just a trick, somehow.

But what if it isn’t? What if the man before him really is what he himself will be like, eight years into the future? What would he do? Or, scratch that, what would _the man_ do? How is he here, anyway, and why? Is there a reason, or was it some sort of accident or… what? Is the man here to stay? And if so…

"If he is me… from the future," Yugi says slowly, glancing first at his see through other self and then at his Grandpa. "Do you think he can go back? And… what if he can't?"

"Hm…" Sugoroku hums, leaning back in his chair. "Well, I don't think it's any use to start worrying about it just yet, not before we hear his side of things. But if he is you from the future, and if is here to stay, then… then we might have a problem. Not with him, so much as with his _identity._ "

Yugi frowns, nodding. _He_ is Yugi; he has the birth records of Yugi. What does this man have? Just a business card and nothing much else. Of course, it isn't like Yugi can really begrudge the man his real identity – if the man is himself, that is – but still. It isn't like they both can go about as Mutou Yugi, especially not when Mutou Yugi is _seventeen_ and not in his mid-twenties.

"Kaiba could probably work something out," the spirit of the Puzzle interjects idly and raises his eyebrows. "I admit I don't know how the details of things like these work, exactly, but if there is someone who could cover up the existence of an individual – or justify it, when it's not supposed to be there – then that person is Kaiba."

Yugi considers it and then nods before telling the same to his Grandpa, who frowns in answer. "Though, I'm not sure if Kaiba _would_ ," Yugi adds. "He's not the sort of person to help others."

"I could duel him for it – he'd never turn it down," the spirit says with a smirk, and it seems like he's about to continue when a sound from the bed alerts them.

The man grunts, opens his eyes and winces before covering them with his IV adorned hand. "Goddamnit," he says, making Yugi's eyes widen. "If someone slipped me something again, heads are going to roll…"

Yugi shares a wild-eyed look with his spiritual other self, who answers it with a frown – because that can't be him, he'd never say something like that, right? And yet, the voice. It's deeper than his own, rougher – but so much like his. While Yugi and the spirit turn to look at the man uneasily, Sugoroku clears his throat.

"Are people in the habit of slipping you things, then?" he asks almost calmly – almost.

"Is that a joke, Grandpa?" the man on the bed asks. He snorts before rubbing his eyes, dropping his hand, and blinking at the ceiling for a moment before lowering his eyes. "So, what happened this –" he chokes mid-sentence, sitting up hurriedly with his eyes widening as he looks at Yugi.

Yugi looks back, uneasy and fascinated all at the same time. His future self's eyes are and aren't like his own – the colour is the same, as it the shape, though his older self's eyes have narrowed somewhat when compared to his own still childishly large ones. The look of them, though, is the most interesting thing. It's horrified, hopeful, and almost mortified all at the same time.

"So, uh, am I dead?" the man asks, his voice a bit higher pitched now – closer to Yugi's own voice. His eyes flicker, from Yugi to Sugoroku and then to the third seat, where they stop, staring – staring right at the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. "Ooh, _god_ ," the man whispers, shifting in the bed and looking a bit like he'd like to make a run for it.

"You can see me?" the spirit asks, fascinated, and the man just stares at him.

"You're not dead, young man," Sugoroku says thoughtfully, looking between the man and the seat – which looks to him like it is empty. "Though I suspect you're not where you expect to be."

"Well, I always knew there was a chance I'd end up in hell," the man says, his face pale and stricken. "Didn't think it'd be this bad." He swallows thickly.

"This isn't hell," Yugi says quickly, looking at his two other selves – and that would _definitely_ take some time to get used to. The spirit is scowling now, his arms folded and legs crossed, _defensive,_ while the man on the bed keeps looking at him like he's never seen anything so horrible. "This is Domino, and the year is ninety-nine. You're in the _past_ … probably," he trails away, a bit unsure.

The man hesitates, almost forcibly dragging his eyes away from the spirit to Yugi where they pause, to take in Yugi's clothing, his face – the Millennium Puzzle. Then the man looks away to Sugoroku. "The… past?" he asks unsurely.

"Well, if you are Mutou Yugi – and you seem to be – then that is the only thing that would explain this," Sugoroku says with a considering look, glancing between the man and Yugi and the empty chair. "What year is it for you?"

"Uh. Two thousand and ten?" the man says awkwardly and then, after a moment of thought, narrows his eyes at Yugi. "You're supposed to be me? Past me, even. Prove it," he says, with authority that startles Yugi a bit – before he moves to comply, holding out his hands, showing the scars. The man reaches for his hand and takes Yugi's fingers in his own, bigger, stronger ones _._ There is a moment of quiet as the man examines the scars just as Sugoroku had examined _his_.

It doesn't seem to satisfy the man entirely – his eyes are now conflicted with disbelief and suspicion as he looks up at Yugi's face. "First year in high school, first day," he says. "Which did you choose, second from the left or third forward?"

Yugi blinks, at first having no idea what the man is talking about. Then he remembers – the first day, when he had only known one person in class – Anzu, who had been sitting at the other end of the classroom. Yugi remembers – somewhat vaguely, but he remembers – looking at the other students. He also recalls what he had been thinking.

Yugi flushes bright red. "S-second from the left?" he answers, mortified at the fact that he actually still remembers it, and the man releases his hands like they burned.

"You believe now?" Sugoroku asks, looking curiously between Yugi and the man who _is_ his future self – only way he could know what he knew, even the spirit of the Puzzle didn't know _that_.

"Well, it's not the weirdest thing ever to happen to me," the man says, glancing uneasily towards the spirit of the Puzzle and then quickly away again.

 _'Partner?'_ the spirit asks, looking at Yugi. _'What did he mean? What was second from the left?'_

 _'Nothing, my other self, never mind,'_ Yugi says quickly, shaking his head and then looking at his future self. "So, uh… Do you know how you – I mean, we don't know anything," he says, glancing at Sugoroku. "We just found out - they got Grandpa's phone number from a card in your wallet and thought you were me."

"They?" the man asks, confused.

"The hospital staff," Sugoroku says, and and explains what they know – which is very little. "You have a bit of a bump on your head," the old man adds, pointing at the side of his own forehead, making the man lift his hand and wince at the touch.

"So, do you know?" Yugi asks his future self.

The man thinks about it for a moment, frowning at his own knees and then shaking his head before looking away, noting his clothing on the table. "Is my phone here?" he asks them. "It might have something," he explains, and Sugoroku hands it over.

"Should you be using it, though? " Sugoroku asks. "This is a hospital after all."

The man glances up and flashes a brief smile. "Oh, who's gonna know?" he says and as they watch, the man activates the mobile phone – somehow, Yugi can't see how he does it – making the screen light up.

Frowning, Yugi leans in for a closer look; the screen is _huge_ and all in colour, looking more like a computer screen or a television than a phone – and it responds to _touch_! The future-him flicks it with his thumb, making things shift, and then there are pictures flashing through the screen, looking like they are from some sort of event.

"Right," the man murmurs with a frown. "The expo…" he lowers the phone a bit, frowning at nothing. "The science expo; Kaiba invited me there to see his new system and… there was an exhibition he though I'd like to see…" scowling harder, trying to remember, he leans his head back and turns to look at the ceiling lights instead. "I can't remember what…"

"A science expo?" Sugoroku asks, exchanging looks with Yugi. "Anything to do with, I don't know, time travel, maybe?"

"There was some secret project or another – there always is – but…" future-Yugi shrugs, lowering his eyes and the phone. "Do you know where exactly I was found?" he asks them, looking at Sugoroku.

"I'm not sure. The doctor probably knows. We were supposed to call someone to see you once you woke up anyway," Sugoroku says, glancing towards the call button. "Ah, should we call them? You should probably figure out what to say, considering everything," he adds, motioning at Yugi. "They think you're Yugi, but…."

Yugi smiles awkwardly as his future self looks at him. "Well, I'll figure something out, bluff my way through it," he says, turning to Sugoroku again. "What day is it today, though? And where exactly am I?"

Frowning a bit, Yugi turns to look at his incorporeal other self while his Grandpa answers his future self's questions. The spirit of the Puzzle is now glowering at future-Yugi, as if trying to see into his head – or maybe trying to bore a hole through it. _'My other self?'_ Yugi thinks to him tentatively, sensing the spirit's unease and confusion – and something that feels like odd, impotent fury. _'My other self, what's wrong?'_

 _'Nothing,'_ the spirit almost growls, standing up while Sugoroku presses the button to call a nurse. _'We should probably leave the room; the doctor will probably want to examine him alone.'_

"But -" Yugi says out loud, glancing at his future self – who is not looking his way at all – and his other self. Then, awkwardly, he stands up to follow the spirit, who is already making his way to the door. "I'll be right outside, Grandpa," Yugi says, and he quickly catches up with the spirit.


	3. Breaking the Rules

Had the spirit of the Puzzle had a physical presence, he would've kicked the door out of his way and maybe slammed it shut after him.

 _Why_ was future-Yugi looking at him like that? Like it _hurt_? Like he had done something so horrible that the very sight of him was unbearable? The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had endured a lot of strange and horrible stares – other Bakura's look of greed, other Marik's sheer insanity. But no one had ever looked at him like the very act of seeing him was…

Future-Yugi – his own partner's future self – had taken one look at the past and thought he was in _hell_. And it hadn't been a joke, either. The man had seriously thought that he had died and ended up in hell. Just at the sight of him!

 _'My other self?'_ Yugi asks silently, cautiously stepping closer to him, but not quite looking at him – not wanting to look strange in public. _'What’s wrong?'_

The spirit smothers the urge to growl. The way the older Yugi looked at him shouldn't bother him. It wouldn't, if it had been anyone else. But it was _Yugi_. A different Yugi, but Yugi nonetheless. And to have Yugi, his partner, his light – the one he would and _will_ do anything to protect – look at him like he is a nightmare…

 _'My other self?'_ Yugi asks again, and the spirit looks away before sighing.

 _'It's… it's nothing, partner,'_ he thinks back, and leans against the wall across the door to future-Yugi's room. _'I'm sorry if I worried you. It's just… it's a little startling, this situation.'_

 _'Tell me about it,'_ Yugi sighs, stepping beside him to lean against the wall, too. _'He's a… bit strange, though, isn't he? I'm not like that, am I?'_

The spirit thinks about it for a moment. No, Yugi isn't. The man in that room is harder, older, and more worn, somehow. From what little the spirit has seen, it is obvious that future-Yugi is more suspicious than his partner – Yugi trusts anyone and everything so easily, but future-Yugi first expected the worst and then suspected trickery. Very different.

The man has said that the year he came from was two thousand and ten. So he is actually ten, eleven years older than Yugi. Twenty-seven, hm? Is ten years enough to change a person so much? Maybe. If something bad happened to them in those ten years.

The spirit scowls and looks at the floor. The fact that future-Yugi has no Puzzle still bothers him. What happened to it? What happened to the other… him? Where is the other spirit? Had future-Yugi…

Swallowing, the spirit glances at his partner, who is eying the door in silent thought. One of his best and worst kept fears is that Yugi would discard the Puzzle; break it and leave it behind. It would be within Yugi's right, and the spirit knows that many other people would've done it at the first sign of the sort of possession Yugi is enduring with him. Yugi can do it any time he wants to, just break the Puzzle and thus be freed from the soul infesting it – infesting him.

But Yugi wouldn't because Yugi is kind, and because he knows that the spirit only wants the best for him. And yet… and yet, future-Yugi doesn't have the Puzzle.

What had happened? Why had future-Yugi left the Puzzle behind? And what had the other spirit done to make future-Yugi look at him like he is something _horrible_?

As he thinks, the doctor comes and heads into the room, and soon after, Grandfather Sugoroku steps out. "The doctor's just going to examine him quickly," the old man says to Yugi. "Ask him a few questions to make sure he's all there, and so on. I think he can handle it – he's not exactly a dummy."

"Yeah," Yugi murmurs, still looking at the door. "What will we do, Grandpa?" he asks then. "With him, with… with everything?"

"I don't know, yet. Let's just wait and see for now. Hopefully, they won't want to keep him under observation, and we can all leave and figure this out in peace, somehow," Sugoroku answers. "A science expo, though. That's worrying."

The spirit of the Puzzle lifts his head. "Worrying?" he asks out loud, looking at Yugi. "How so?"

 _'Well, if whatever happened to him happened at a science expo, then it was probably some technological gadget that sent him back,'_ Yugi answers silently, glancing at him. _'And if what sent him here is back_ there, _then… how can he go back?'_

The spirit frowns at that. It was a good point.

"We have another more immediate problem, though," Sugoroku murmurs. "Paperwork. If they try and check his medical history, they'll probably come up with yours. Unless they already have."

"Oh," Yugi murmurs, frowning. "Yeah, that is a… damn," he murmurs, biting his lip.

 _'Partner?'_ the spirit asks, worried.

 _'Well, they have in their hands a grown man with the medical records of a seventeen year old,'_ Yugi explains. _'Anyone would be curious. And if they find out that there are_ two of me _here, one of them ten years older than he's supposed to be…'_

The spirit shakes his head. He doesn't really get the danger in that, but Yugi sounds worried. There's little the spirit can do about things like _paperwork_. But he can do something to the people who make the paperwork.

"Do you want me to…?" he motions towards the door. "I won't need to play a Shadow Game," he adds quickly, when Yugi looks at him with worry. As much as it bothers the spirit, he has learned from Pegasus, from Bakura, from Marik and Ishizu. There are many ways to activate shadow powers, and often times, you don't even need an opponent in a game to do it. "No one will be hurt," he promises.

It doesn't seem to relieve Yugi entirely, though his partner does relax a bit. _'What will you do?'_ Yugi asks.

"Just make the doctor not think things too hard. Later he'll just assume that he treated you and not a grown man," the spirit says. "It's barely a spell."

 _'Well… alright, as long as it won't hurt anyone,'_ Yugi says, still anxious but willing to trust him. _'Be careful.'_

"Always," the spirit says, and he detaches himself from the wall before walking to the door, then through it. Inside, the doctor is quizzing future-Yugi about the things he knows – the date, the names of the emperor and the prime minister, and so on. Judging by how the doctor is frowning and how uneasy future-Yugi looks, there have been other questions – harder ones for the time traveller to answer.

The spirit shifts forward and next to the doctor, making future-Yugi jerk a bit where he sits, his eyes widening at the sight of the spirit. While his partner's elder self watches, the spirit reaches for the ghostly replica of Yugi's deck holster, opening the clasp and running a thumbnail gently over the cards until the one he wants jumps at his touch.

The _Brain Control_ is just as incorporeal as the rest of him, but it still retains enough power of the real card to work as he holds it out near the doctor's forehead and activates it. The way he uses the card isn't exactly how it's meant to be used, but with his will, he forces the magic to work the way he needs it to; to take hold of the memories the man has concerning Yugi and change the _meaning_ of them.

Soon, once both Yugis were out of the man's sight, the man's perception would change – what he'd remember would be the present-Yugi, not the future one.

With a little bit of concentration, the spirit also makes sure that what he has triggered in the man's mind wouldn't just stay there, but would also translate to his actions. If there were any records already made of future-Yugi, Doctor Tanaka would change them to match his new perception.

With that done, the spirit withdraws the card and returns it to his deck.

"What did you do?" future-Yugi asks while the doctor sways under the magic, for a moment too addled to really pay attention. The time traveller isn't looking at the spirit though – his eyes are on the bedspread.

"My partner and Grandfather Sugoroku were worried about you and my partner's medical records mixing badly," the spirit answers, glancing at him and then away just as quick. "I am making sure that there will be no… consequences."

"I see," future-Yugi says shortly, and then adds, "…thank you," so awkwardly that it almost sounds like he had to physically force the words out.

The spirit nods curtly and then hurries out of the room again, through the door and to his _real_ partner's side. Yugi gives him an odd look, and quickly, the spirit forces the grimace from his face, smiling instead. "It should be alright, now," he says.

 _'Alright,'_ Yugi nods, turning to Sugoroku and explaining quickly what the spirit had done. _'Thank you, my other self,'_ his partner adds.

The spirit nods and then turns to look at the door, wondering.

What the hell had he done to the man?


	4. Mother Nature

It takes about half an hour, but eventually, Doctor Tanaka comes out and tells them, with oddly vague inflections, that Yugi is free to go now. "It doesn't seem that his bout of unconsciousness has had any adverse effect on him," the man says. "There is no need to keep him under observation. Just make sure that someone stays with him for the rest of the day, and if something happens, be sure to bring him straight back, but aside from that…"

While Grandpa thanks the man, Yugi glances at the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. _'What did you do?'_ he asks, though more in amusement than concern. The man hadn't seemed hurt. Just… vague.

 _'Nothing much. Just a bit of brain control; only enough to change his memories of these events,'_ the spirit shrugs, looking at the partially open door and hesitating. _'Partner, I think I shall return to the Puzzle. Let me know if something happens, or if you need my aid.'_

 _'Oh. Okay, if you're sure,'_ Yugi answers, and the spirit smiles before fading out of sight. Touching the Millennium Puzzle with one hand, Yugi frowns a bit. Though the spirit is trying to hide it, he can feel the unease and anxiety coming off him in waves.

The way Yugi's future self had acted had bothered the spirit more than he had let on – and he hadn't done all that good a job of hiding it. Frowning a bit, Yugi adjusts the chain of the Puzzle and swears to get to the bottom of the whole thing – why his future self looked at his other self like that. Not right now, though. There were bigger things to worry about.

Shaking his head, Yugi makes his way back to the room, where he sees that his future self is now going through his clothing and items. The elder version of him glances up, looks around, and relaxes just a bit – he even _smiles_ now that the spirit isn't there. "Seems like I'm free to go."

"Yeah, the doctor said you are. But we're supposed to keep an eye on you, just in case," Yugi says a bit awkwardly.

His elder version nods and then begins to unbutton the front of the pyjamas, taking the shirt off and pulling on a black top – though not before Yugi had seen just how _much_ his elder self had grown and developed, in comparison to him. He's still gawking at the man when his future self stands up, without any hint of embarrassment, to take off his pyjama bottoms.

"What?" the man asks, while shaking out the leather trousers and starting to shimmy his way into them.

"You're…" Yugi swallows. Ripped comes to mind. The loose pyjama shirt had hid it, but now the man's arms and a large part of his neck is bare thanks to the low collar of his sleeveless shirt and – yeah. "Do you, uh… work out?" Yugi asks, a bit awed and obscurely aghast at the same time as he tries not to stare at the man's chest, obviously _well-formed_ even with the shirt in the way.

"Kind of," the future-him says, flashing him a smile and taking out the first of his belts and easing it into the loops of his trousers before securing it snugly. Then he takes the extra belts, one of which holds his deck holster. By the time Grandpa enters, the man has two heavily studded belts loosely hanging around his hips, on top of the one snugly around his waist.

"So. I assume you're coming home with us?" Sugoroku asks while Yugi's future self starts donning a variety of rather spiky bracelets and a couple of rings.

"I guess so?" Yugi's future self says, tilting his head and – yeah, he's putting on earrings now; silver hoops with ankhs hanging from them. "If that is alright. I suppose I don't really have any other place to go, at this point."

Yugi just shakes his head, watching as the man sits down to pull on his black, studded, and buckle adorned boots on. Yugi himself wears… somewhat strange clothing, though mostly that's the spirit's influence. The spirit had, in the beginning, gone for whatever Yugi had considered to be powerful and threatening. Black leather, belts, and so on.

Nowadays, it's less about being threatening and more about what they simply had gotten used to and what they are comfortable with. And yet, Yugi still occasionally feels a bit awkward wearing leather, not to mention the jewellery and the belts… They might suit the spirit when he's in control of Yugi's body, but Yugi just looks like a wanna-be with them on.

But his future self, he doesn't look awkward at all. Not like a wanna-be, nothing like that. He looks… awesome. They don't look like clothing on him – they look like a _lifestyle_.

"If you're done gawking, I think I'm ready to go," his older self says, pushing his phone into one pocket and his wallet into another, all the while grinning at Yugi, who blushes bright red at the words.

"Yes, quite," Sugoroku agrees amusedly, and shakes his head. "Let's go, then."

Embarrassed, Yugi falls in step with his grandfather, his future self following closely after. Though his future self isn't as tall as some people Yugi knows, he still feels impossibly short beside him. The fact that Jonouchi is probably a bit taller than Yugi's future self doesn't really help. God only knows how tall Jonouchi will be at twenty seven. Future-Yugi is probably still a shorty in his own time, as far as that goes…

But still, Yugi feels, for the umpteenth time, like a midget beside him.

They make their way out of the hospital quickly and then head towards Grandpa's car, the future version of Yugi looking around curiously as they do.

"Is the future Domino any different from the way it looks now?" Yugi asks, curious.

"Not much. There are a couple more tall buildings here and there, but aside from that, it's more or less the same," his elder self says thoughtfully. "You can't really tell the difference."

Yugi frowns a bit at that. "You… still think this is a trick?"

His elder self doesn't answer immediately, just glances towards Grandpa, who is unlocking the car. "No," he says. "I've seen better and worse tricks than this. This is… too unreal to be a trick," he says, and looks at Yugi. "If this was a game, the game master would've eased me into the trick, the game, probably in stages – in order to give me time to build a proper suspension of disbelief. This is too sudden, and if it was an illusion, well… no trickster would've opened by giving me every reason to be suspicious."

"So… you've been convinced by this because this is too obvious to be a trick?" Yugi asks thoughtfully.

"Yes. And also, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle would've been tough to fake,"  his elder version adds under his breath. He shakes his head. "You want to ride shotgun, or will I?" he asks then, motioning at the car.

"I'm fine sitting in the back," Yugi says, and hurries into the car, wondering. _'My other self. Are you watching?'_ he asks, directing his thoughts inwards.

 _'Yes. But I'm afraid I have no insights to offer,'_ the spirit answers and immediately withdraws again, to observe in silence.

"So. Ten years in the future, huh?" Sugoroku muses while guiding the car out of the parking lot. "I don't suppose you know any winning lottery numbers?"

"I'm afraid not," Yugi's future self answers with a chuckle, while worming out his phone and turning it on. "I don't really pay attention to games that rely solely on luck."

"Pity," Sugoroku murmurs, while the time traveller snaps pictures through the car window.

They reach the game shop in what feels like no time at all, and as Yugi gets out of the car, he can't help but notice how strangely his elder self looks at the storefront. "What is it?" he asks curiously at the sight of the odd, half-smile lingering on his future self's face.

"Ah, nothing. It's just…" he motions at the display window, which is mostly filled with Duel Monsters stuff. "A Duel Disk," the man says, sounding almost sarcastic – or maybe heartbroken; it's hard to tell.

"You don't… use them anymore?" Yugi asks, a bit worried now. A future without Duel Monsters…

"They're… sort of obsolete in my time," his future self says, turning to look at him before taking out his phone and, for some reason, snapping a picture of the storefront. "People still play the game, mind you. Just not with Duel Disks."

"Ah," Yugi answers, frowning a bit and then shaking his head. It's an odd thought. But then, so was hologram technology, not that long ago.

"Well, let's go inside and talk things through, shall we?" Sugoroku says, opening the front door of the game store but not changing the sign that says _Closed_. "I trust you know what's where?"

"It's not that different from how I know it," future-Yugi says, peering around curiously, the odd smile still on his face as he takes in the Duel Monsters merchandise on the shelves and the posters on the walls.

Not sure what to make of his own future self's apparent, and somewhat twisted, amusement at a thing he himself likes so much, Yugi goes ahead of his elder self, leading him towards the back of the store and then up the stairs to the house, where he eases off his shoes. His future self does the same, leaving the boots leaning against the wall before following him into the kitchen and peering around.

Though the man seems to know everything, he doesn't seem _quite_ as at home in the place as Yugi is. At first, Yugi can't place the difference there. And then he realises. "You don't live here anymore, do you?" he asks.

"No, I haven't lived at the Kame Game Shop in… well, a few years," his future self says, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I got a flat a little closer to the city centre," he adds, rubbing his hands together.

"You live alone?" Yugi asks, and he feels an odd pang of pain at the thought, his hand straying by itself to the Puzzle.

His future self glances at the Millennium Item and his hand resting on it, and then quickly looks away. "It's not as bad as it might seem," he adds. "And living alone doesn't always mean _being_ alone. I have more than enough company, when I want it."

"Well, that's good to hear," Sugoroku says, coming into the kitchen. "I was worried that you'd be freeloading here forever."

"Hey," Yugi objects, while his elder self just grins.

"You say that now, Grandpa, but just wait until he leaves. You'll be begging him to come back and bring back all the customers with him," he says, pointing at Yugi – who first preens and then frowns with consternation as he realises what his elder self means. Once he moves out of the game shop… there will be no more constant flood of challengers, all after the God Cards?

The future-him grins at him and at their grandfather, who seems to have realised the same thing. "You're never moving out," Sugoroku says just before Yugi can suggest that maybe seventeen wasn't that young to be living alone.

"But –"

"No."

"Aww," Yugi murmurs, and he sits down across from his future self. "Thanks a lot," he mutters to the man, who grins wider at him.

"Jokes aside, though," Sugoroku says, walking in. "We need to think this through – what's happening here and what are the implications? Yugi – future-Yugi – do you… remember this, any of this?"

Yugi frowns. Remember? _'Oh, he means from_ my _perspective,'_ he realises, and turns to look at his elder self. What is present to him would be the past to future-Yugi, so he should remember it having happened to him when he had been seventeen. Maybe.

Yugi's future self shakes his head, though, resting his chin on knuckles. "No. And I'm pretty sure it never did happen to me," he says, glancing at Yugi. "Not that there isn't a way to forget these things, or erase memories, but…" he tilts is his head a bit. "I would still have a, how should I put it… an imprint of it."

"Imprint?" Sugoroku asks while Yugi frowns in confusion.

"In here," the elder-Yugi says, patting his chest. "I might not have the Millennium Puzzle, but I still have access to my own soul. And there isn't a way to permanently remove things from a person's soul. If I had lived through a period where my future self had appeared, it would be there – and it isn't."

Yugi frowns. _'Is he right?'_ he asks his other self silently.

 _'I'm…  I don't know,'_ the spirit answers, sounding confused. _'There are quite a few pieces of my memories missing, however, which contradicts what he says.'_

Future-Yugi seems to know what is going on Yugi's head because he shakes his head. "The Pharaoh's memories aren't _gone_ ," he says. "That they can't be reached doesn't mean that they aren't there."

Yugi swallows and the shock from the spirit seems to echo through his entire body. "T-they're still there?" he asks, clasping the Puzzle in both hands.

His elder version lets out a hiss through his teeth. "Probably shouldn't have said that," he mutters to himself, looking away guiltily.

"Well," Sugoroku says, looking between them with a frown. "To return to the original matter; you're sure this never happened to you?"

"As sure as I can be," the elder-Yugi says, not looking at Yugi. "I'm pretty familiar with my soul, and it hasn't been tampered with. But I can check it out later, if you want. I doubt I'll find anything I don't already know to be there, but…"

"Hm," Sugoroku hums and leans back while Yugi stares down at the Puzzle, feeling his other self pacing the corridors of the maze inside it. Even after the prophecies they had heard from Marik and Ishizu, they had still been so uncertain, so very much in the dark. To have their hopes confirmed so easily…

"Why don't you have the Puzzle?" Yugi asks then, and the spirit stops pacing. "You haven't had it in years, have you? Why not? Where is it?"

His future self just looks at him and then away, his expression strange and unreadable. "I think I've read about something like this in a science journal or something," he says to Sugoroku, ignoring Yugi's question completely. "Something about alternate realities and whatnot. Just because I come from the future doesn't necessarily mean I come from _your_ future."

"That could be, though who knows. You might've just forgotten, somehow," Sugoroku answers thoughtfully. "Wasn't there a Millennium Item that can tamper with a person's soul room?"

"The Millennium Key, yes," future-Yugi says, but shakes his head. "But the changes the Millennium Key could do were never permanent – time wore them off eventually. And besides, its wielder never could've done it."

"Not even if he thought it needed to be done?" Yugi asks, thinking back to the frankly rather creepy Egyptian. Shadi follows a strange creed and who knows what he can do and why he will do it.

"No," his elder self says with a strange but oddly compelling conviction.

"Well, if we accept it as an impossibility for now, then… then you are from the future, but not from our future," Grandpa says, and sighs with what sounds like relief. "If that is it and it's really possible, then… we're in luck. Especially you," he adds, looking at Yugi's elder self.

"In luck? How?" Yugi asks with a frown. To him, accidentally ending up ten years in the past doesn't seem like luck.

"If this was my own past, then I'd be in danger of changing my own present, my own future," his elder self answers. "Which could have rather bad side effects on me and my very existence. Just by talking to you, I might accidentally erase myself from being by making you do things differently from how I did them."

"Oh," Yugi says, his eyes a bit wide. "Yeah, that sounds bad."

"Doesn't it, just?" his elder self asks, and then looks away. "Of course, my being here having no consequences to my present is its own can of worms, too," he murmurs with a grimace.

"Uh…?" Yugi asks, and when his future self doesn't answer, he turns to his Grandpa, who is looking equally serious.

"Think about it," the old man says. "He knows your future – probably more or less everything that might happen to you in the next ten or so years."

"And he could change things," Yugi murmurs, and looks at his future self, who is now scowling at the kitchen corner. "But you already have, haven't you? Just by being here, since this never happened to you, my future will already be different."

"Probably, but I could change things a lot more than that. It wouldn't even be that hard," his elder self says grimly. "Changing things for the better, and," he glances towards Yugi – no, towards the Millennium Puzzle. "And most definitely for the worse, too."

Yugi blinks at that and looks down at the Puzzle. Inside, the spirit feels frozen, shocked – and yet reaching out to him almost desperately, holding onto their hearts' connection for dear life. Yugi swallows and then spreads out the fingers still holding the Millennium Puzzle until he's covering as much of it as he can, holding the item tight against his chest.

Future-Yugi has no Puzzle and he looked at the spirit like it was painful. Why? What had happened? Whatever it is, Yugi does _not_ want it to happen to him.

"Right. Um… excuse me," he says, standing up and stumbling out of the kitchen.

 _'Partner…'_ the sprit's voice comes from the Puzzle, soft and uncertain.

 _'It's nothing, my other self. I just… I just need to think,'_ Yugi answers, hurrying to his own room and closing the door tightly behind him. He had been intending to sit down on the bed, maybe pace a bit, but the moment the door is shut, he finds himself leaning against it and sliding to the floor, hugging the Puzzle tightly to his chest.

The spirit says nothing, though Yugi can feel his presence stronger, his emotions more powerfully – all of them just there, barely below the surface. Like that, they hold onto each other, Yugi still clutching onto the Millennium Puzzle as if it would make it less likely that he, too, would lose it, like his future self somehow had.


	5. Foreign

Yugi looks in silence after his past self for a long while, feeling a bit conflicted. The kid is so _tiny_ and innocent and… and has no idea how things will turn out yet, can't even imagine it at this point. And it's so tempting – would be so easy – just to tell him, tell him to…

"How bad will it be for you?" Grandpa asks, and Yugi jerks a bit, having almost forgotten that the old man is there. Sugoroku stares at him levelly. "You'll lose the Puzzle, somehow. How bad will it be?"

Yugi snorts at that and looks down at his hands, at the old scars. "That depends on the perspective. I grew stronger without…" Without _Atemu_. He had grown a lot, when compared to his past self, and the physical growth was just a small part of that. He had grown tougher, maybe a bit smarter, and a whole lot more resolute. Independent, in ways he couldn't have imagined when he had still been a teenager. But…

He shakes his head and looks at his grandfather, who is younger, even if still old. It's strange to see him without many of the accumulated wrinkles and still with grey hair – Grandpa's hair was white the last time he had seen, and a whole lot thinner. "I was alright," Yugi says, what he's been saying for the past ten years or so. "I was fine."

"Now, why do I not believe that?" Sugoroku mutters with a snort. "You're obviously not fine now," the man adds, leaning back in his chair and looking at the doorway past-Yugi had taken in his hurried exit. "I can't say I completely understand the bond my Yugi has with that spirit, but I know how important it is to him, to them both. It must've been that way for you, too. What happened to it? What happened to the spirit?"

Yugi turns his eyes to his hands. What had happened? Fate had. And maybe a lot of miscommunication. "He moved on," he says finally. Atemu moved on and _left him behind_ , and though Yugi knew why, knew that it had _probably_ been only right… even after ten years, a small portion of him still hates Atemu for it. He hates himself more, though. A whole lot more.

He shakes his head again, trying to push the thoughts out of his head – them and the temptation of wondering how to _change_ things for past-Yugi. If the boy is anything like he had been – and he is; it's painfully obvious – then past-Yugi would regret things, too. It would be so easy just to nudge him in the right direction and maybe, possibly, have him avoid what had happened.

But he can't. It's not his place – not his time, most likely not his world, not his _anything_.  Past-Yugi might be a version of him, but that doesn't mean that Yugi has any right to tamper with his life.

"I should probably start figuring out what to do, from here on," Yugi says, forcing himself away from the thoughts in his head. "If everything happened the way I think it did, then I might be stuck here for a while." Maybe permanently, and, god, how horrible would that be, to endure these years again? "Either way, I need to decide what to do. I'll need… things. ID, a place to stay, things like that."

"You can stay here, of course," Grandpa offers quickly.

Yugi shakes his head. He can't. Not with past-Yugi and _him_ here. Staying here and trying to keep quiet would drive him mad. "It's better I don't, not for any extended period of time," he says. "I might change things, even without meaning to. It's probably better to avoid it."

Sugoroku frowns at him, looking like he's about to object, but stopping with a strange look. "Well, I suppose I can't exactly say you're too _young_ ," the man murmurs. "But still. Do you know how you would manage? For a place to stay, you need money to pay for it. Do you have any with you?" he asks.

Yugi shrugs and digs out his wallet, going through it. "Yeah. Maybe enough for a month's rent in a cheap place," he answers after counting the bills. "Problem is that most of these," he pulls out one of the ten thousand yen bills, "were printed in the future. Anyone who takes a closer look at the dates would think they're all fake."

Sugoroku considers the bill and then sighs, shaking his head. "I can exchange them for money from this time and put the future bills in a safe – and then use them once they _are_ printed," he says and looks at him. "But that's not the main issue here, though."

No, it isn't. Yugi can't go on living as Mutou Yugi, and thus take past-Yugi's name. Their records would clash. He needs a new name – not to mention a new past. Plus, all his education, his work experience; all of it's meaningless here when it's not on record…

"Yugi's companion suggested that Kaiba Seto might be good enough to conjure a fake identity for you," Sugoroku says. "And I agree. For a young man of his talents and resources, it wouldn't even be hard. Whether he'd do it or not is another thing, however."

"Just have A – the pharaoh duel him for it," Yugi says, quickly biting his tongue on the name. "He'd never turn it down."

"Maybe not," Sugoroku agrees. "But say you get your new identification. What then?"

Yugi shrugs and leans back, sighing. "Try and figure out a way to go back?" he muses, but he doesn't have any high hopes of it. His memories of the science expo are vague and scattered, and though he had taken some pictures of it that might be useful, it's not like he actually knows what had happened or how it had been done. Science has never been his expertise, not by a long shot. Plus there’s the concept that this past is not _his_ past, and the future of this world isn't _his_ future…

Well, if they'd be able to get Kaiba to help him, then maybe Kaiba could figure it out? If anyone can, it'd be Kaiba, but… Even if they can figure out a way to reverse whatever had happened, would he be able to go back to the place he had come from, rather than getting stranded in some different, alien future?

"And if you can't?" Grandpa asks softly.

"Figure out a way to live here, I guess," Yugi murmurs with a faint grimace. Though it wasn't like he had been living out his dreams back in his own time, he _had_ built himself a living. He had a business – he had _clientele_ and a rather neat resume, if he says so himself. All of that is gone here. He'd need to start all over again, if he even can. All of his projects are gone, his history, his experience… and he doesn't even have the reputation of the King of Games to start from.

And can he, anyway? Is it right to pursue that career again? What he had worked out in the past; past-Yugi of this world may want to work out in his own future, and if Yugi starts to work, he might just as well be stealing his younger self's future occupation.

Well. He can get a job that doesn't mean working with games. Maybe. He can do it, if he has to.

"First things first," he says, letting the thought trail away. "I need ID, and Kaiba is probably the best chance at getting a good, convincing one. If we can get him to do it…"

Well, if Atemu didn't want to try and get the favour out of Kaiba, then Yugi could maybe do it himself. He's not exactly a shabby duellist, and Kaiba is nothing if not a man starved for a challenge. Or… more like boy. God, even Kaiba is seventeen right now, isn't he? _'This will really take some getting used to,'_ Yugi thinks to himself, smothering a groan.

"It's as good a place to start as any," Sugoroku says after a while, looking at him thoughtfully. "Probably better we have Yugi make the call, though," he adds. "It will have better effect that way."

"No kidding," Yugi murmurs, and glances out to the hall and the way leading to past-Yugi's bedroom. He had spooked the boy good and now feels a bit of a guilty sting. It's not his past self's fault; the mistakes he himself had made, the regrets he has… and he really shouldn't be taking them out on the past-him and on the spirit. He should go out there and apologise, but…

He doubts he has it in him to enter that room as it is now, in its still hopeful, innocent state. The state it had been, before he had torn everything in it down in a helpless, sobbing fury after Atemu's departure.

What he thinks must be showing in his face, because Grandpa clears his throat and knowingly says, "You're just _fine_ , are you?" giving him a pointed look.

"Oh, shut it, Gramps," Yugi sighs, running a hand over his face and then standing up. "I'll go and… ask him. If you don't mind."

"If you're sure," Sugoroku says, and stands up. "I think I'll make some tea. Ask if Yugi wants any."

To hear his own name spoken like that – at himself, and yet it doesn't mean him? – is a bit strange, but Yugi nods and heads out of the kitchen, idly hooking his thumbs on his trouser pockets. The way to the door of past-Yugi's room is short. In front of it, he hesitates for a moment, secretly grateful he hears nothing.

He doesn't want to go in, doesn't even want to see the room – it would bring it all crashing back; he wouldn't be able to handle it… No. He's stronger than this, and maybe it's high time to try and start fighting his past demons. One little battle at a time, and maybe, just maybe, he'd finally be able to get over himself.

Steeling himself, Yugi knocks on the door and hears a startled shift that seems to grind against the door - past-Yugi is sitting on the floor against the door. Wincing a bit, the time traveller sighs. He really needs to start watching his actions and words if they have _this_ bad of an effect on the kid.

"Yes?" his past self asks through the door.

"It's me," Yugi says, and isn't that weird? "Grandpa and I talked, and figured that before anything else, I'll need an ID. Could you call Kaiba for me? I'd do it myself, but, well…" he shrugs, even though his younger self can't see it.

There is a moment of silence before the door opens, and Yugi quickly steps back and looks away. He can feel his younger self's curious, confused gaze on him, but ignores it, saying instead, "Also, Grandpa is making some tea," to cover his own unease.

"Oh. Right. Well, I can try calling Kaiba, but I might not catch him – he's been in and out of Japan since the Battle City Tournament," his past self says. "He might be in America. But I'll try."

"Thanks," Yugi answers, and relaxes a bit as his younger self closes the door – hiding away the memories. "It's probably better not to tell him what you need, exactly. Not on the phone. Just tell him you need a favour, and…" he glances at his younger self, wondering. "Well, I suppose _I_ could duel him for the favour, but it might not interest him, seeing that he doesn't know _me_."

"My other self already promised he'd do it, if Kaiba buys it," his younger self says awkwardly. "If that's okay?"

"Yeah, it's… fine," Yugi nods, wondering what he'd have to do to _avoid_ being present at the duel. It had been bad enough to see Atemu in his incorporeal form, but to see him in control of his past self's body…

Though, considering the whole thing is for him, he probably can't escape making an appearance.

"I'll, uh… go and make the call, then," his younger self says, motioning to the end of the hall where the phone is, hooked onto the wall.

"Right. I'll leave you to it," Yugi nods and turns to make his way back to the kitchen, stopping when his younger self clears his throat.

"Was it… inevitable?" he asks, and Yugi freezes, unable to stop himself from throwing an alarmed look at his younger – and so, so much more innocent - self. His younger self is staring at him seriously. "Was it inevitable?" he asks again, and he doesn't really need to elaborate.

"I…" Yugi chokes a bit – and how ironic is it, that he himself is the one asking the question no one else has ever dared to word, and yet the kid has no idea how serious it is, how horrible – how many nightmares Yugi has had of it. Was it inevitable? Could he have done something to change it? Maybe, possibly, but then again… "I don't know," he finally admits, and then, before his younger self can ask anything else, he continues down the hall and out of reach.

God, but he needs to get out of this house, and _soon_.


	6. Fortitude

Seto has to admit to it himself – he is damn curious. Yugi _never_ asks for anything, definitely not for favours, and to have him actually call and ask him if he'd be willing to duel, betting a favour for a favour, perhaps… it's unusual and _very_ interesting. So interesting, in fact, that Seto smothers his initial urge to instantly agree and then have the duel televised for promotion.

"I'm at the Kaiba Corp. headquarters. Come here and we'll talk about it," he says instead, and hangs up with the intention to squeeze out what Yugi wants before any duels would take place. Then he'd maybe televise it – or if not, then at least the duel would take place on the Kaiba Corp. Duel Platform and would thus be recorded for later use.

With that done, he lets the front desk know to inform him if Mutou Yugi enters the building and to let in him and any companions he might bring. While waiting for his rival's eventual arrival, Seto idly orders the Duel Stage to be readied and the camera system checked, just in case, before leaning back in his seat. He has some paperwork to go through, some plans to look into, but those can wait for few hours.

It takes longer for Yugi to arrive than Seto would've liked, but not as long as to be annoying. By the time the front desk informs him that Mutou Yugi is on his way up – with two companions, which was surprisingly few, really – Seto has gone back to the paperwork and finished reading through a few of the reports from various branches of his corporation.

"Considering you asked for a meeting, one would expect you to be on time, Yugi," Seto snaps at his rival when the shorter teen enters, closely followed not by his usual groupies, but his _grandfather_ and someone else, a man taller than both of the two Mutous. It's hard to say who it is – the man's wearing a hooded vest slightly too small for him, with the hood lifted up – but Seto can immediately tell it's not one of the groupies. None of them, as far as he knows, anyway, ever wears leather.

"Sorry, Kaiba, the traffic was horrible," Yugi says, glancing at the tallest of his two companions before turning his eyes to Seto. "So, have you thought about my request?"

Seto narrows his eyes before standing up from behind his desk and coming to stand in front of it, leaning against the desk's edge. "That depends on what the _favour_ you want is," he says, folding his arms and staring straight at the hooded man. "It's not like you to bet things on duels, and I'm thinking this time it's the favour you're really after, and the duel is just your way of getting it."

"Well, yeah, it is," Yugi admits, sheepish and awkward.

"Which makes this all the more interesting," Seto continues, and narrows his eyes, still eying the hooded man. Two extra belts, the boots, the bracelets… the vest is open in the front and he can see a black shirt underneath with a slightly ripped, low hanging collar. It's all very familiar, not to mention the leather trousers. Of all the weirdoes Seto knows, Mutou Yugi is the only one who can wear leather and look perfectly natural and comfortable in it.

Things are always strange and bizarre around Yugi. But this? Can it be? Whatever it is, he’s not in the mood for playing games. "You," Seto snaps, nodding at the man. "Take off your hood."

The man tilts his head a bit and then smiles. He lifts a ring-adorned hand and pushes the hood back to reveal what Seto somehow had, and yet hadn't, been expecting. "I wasn't really trying to hide," the man says, running a hand through his spiky, two-coloured hair, shaking it into its usual messy state. "Just avoiding security cameras. And the weirdoes that hang about your front entrance."

Seto narrows his eyes, taking in the similarities – and there are many, yet… His eyes flicker between Mutou Yugi and the man who looks very much like him. Seto drums his upper arm with his fingers, making a mental tally of the features the two share, and then the differences. Then he compares what he sees to what he has seen of the _other_ Yugi. As much as he hates the concept of magic and all that nonsense, even he can't deny that Yugi _has_ another self, a stronger and more authoritative personality that emerges when the usual Yugi's strength isn't enough.

Yugi isn't insane, though – Seto has had a team of psychiatrists take a look at the boy from a distance, viewing video footage and listening to audio files, and they all agreed. Yugi is one of the most stable people Seto knows. And yet… There it is, the _other_ Yugi, with his sharp looks and glares and the goddamned _smugness_.

And there is _some_ measure of the unnatural in that other Yugi. The same unnaturalness Seto had seen with Bakura, with Marik, and with Pegasus. He has experienced it first-hand too many times to turn himself blind to it. He may not know how it works, where it comes from, what its purpose is, but he knows that shifting _souls_ is the very least of the powers those with Millennium Items possess.

This man, though… isn't the _other_ Yugi. He lacks the mannerism, the posture, the expression – his eyes are different, but not in that fundamental way that always separates Yugi from the _other_ one. No, this man shares more with the actual Yugi than he does with the _other_ Yugi – though he is different, too. Older, for one.

"Explain," Seto finally growls out. If this is magic yet again…

The two Yugis in front of him share a look and the younger one makes an awkward motion with his hand. The elder one shrugs, and then speaks. "I'm not completely sure how it happened, but a technological gadget probably sent me back in time," he says, pushing his hand into his trouser pocket and retrieving an odd, sleek device. "To me, this is about eleven years in the past," he adds, turning the device on and doing something to the screen before stepping forward and holding it out.

When Seto doesn't make a move to accept it, the man who _might_ be another Mutou Yugi rolls his eyes. "It's just a phone, Kaiba. I took some pictures before I woke up here, and the device that sent me back might be in them."

"You can take pictures with your phone?" Seto asks suspiciously, but reaches out to accept the device.

"I'm from the year two thousand and ten – I can track satellites with my phone," the elder Yugi rolls his eyes. "Also, the screen is touch sensitive; just flick your finger from side to side to leaf through the pictures."

Scowling, Seto looks down at the device. Then, ignoring the image displayed on its wide, impressively sharp quality screen, he turns the device around in his hand. "Is that –?!" he growls out, running a finger over the strip of glimmering white along the phone's back. Yes, it is. The texture is a bit different – the crystals have been covered by a thin sheet of translucent material, probably to protect them, but it is definitely what he thinks it is. "What the hell is _my_ h-pad doing on this thing?"

"I don't know, _you_ 're the one who made the thing, not me," the elder Yugi snorts. "Just look at the damn pictures, will you?"

 _He_ made it? Smothering the urge to growl, Seto does as asked, and then frowns. The pictures show some sort of exhibition, possibly a technology expo of some sort. In every picture, there are enormous flat panel TV screens flashing in colour, and everyone who had wandered into the picture frame seems to be holding a phone or handheld video camera, in some cases both. And in one picture…

It is him – or someone who looks disturbingly like him, dressed in a white suit with a blue dress shirt. He, too, has a phone in his hand – the exact same type in Seto's hands right now – and judging by the looks of it, Yugi had snapped the picture while the… _other_ Seto had been talking.

The elder Yugi leans in closer to look, and grins. "Not a very flattering shot, I know. I'm not that good a camera man," he says, and then pries the phone out of Seto's fingers, ignoring his growl of objection. "Nope," the man says. "Mine. Besides, letting you get your hands on tech from the future is probably not a good thing. Not for the global market, anyway."

"I'll pay you a million yen for that phone," Seto says quickly – he'd pay that much just for the _pictures_ , but the phone itself…! The image capture capability alone was worth a fortune, but with the advanced h-pad and the touch sensitive screen, there must be so much more to the phone.

"A billion wouldn't be enough," the elder-Yugi grins, and hides the phone away. "I'm not an idiot, Kaiba, and I know how much you made with this thing – and that was in a time where smartphones were perfectly common. Here you'd make a killing with this. So, no."

"Tch," Seto hisses, staring at the man keenly. "A billion, then."

"Tempting, but nope," the man answers, smiling wider.

" _Two billion_."

"A-hem," a voice cuts in before the man who maybe is a time traveller can answer. The younger Yugi had stepped closer and is now eying them with amusement mixed with unease. "As… valuable as the phone might be, it's not why we're here."

"Hmph," Seto grunts and looks at the elder-Yugi thoughtfully. "You need some fake ID, I guess."

"That's about the size of it," the man agrees.

"I'll have them made if you give me that phone."

The man snorts, grinning widely at him. "Yeah, I think I can get a fake ID from some back alley a whole lot cheaper than that, thanks."

"Not as good, though. Two billion _and_ the ID?" Seto asks, though without much hope. Whatever's happened to this Yugi, he's not a gullible idiot anymore – and he knows the value of what he has. Damn it. It almost makes Seto regret the fact that these days, he prefers to get his ideas and projects the legal way.

"Well," Seto says in irritation when the man just continues to look amused. "You think you can _duel_ the ID out of me, then?" he asks, and folds his arms again. "Gutsy."

"Actually, we thought that my other self would… I mean, the one here," the younger Yugi says, touching the Millennium Puzzle.

Seto harrumphs. Normally, just that would've been more than worth it - Yugi has some strange aversion to playing publicly, and as far as Seto knows, all the major tournaments he's played in, he's been dragged into by force. Pegasus forced him to the Duellist Kingdom, Ishizu tempted him to Battle City… So, there was a certain value of having Yugi's offer, all for the low price of having Seto make a fake ID for his future self.

But Seto's played Yugi before – both of him, even.

"Do you have a deck?" he asks the elder Yugi.

"Yes?" the man answers, confused.

"I want to play you – win or lose, I'll make the ID," Seto says. Better to, really. It would ensure that the elder-Yugi would be safe from legal troubles, and thus would stick around – and Seto would have certain leverage over him. "And we _will_ talk about the phone again," he adds. "And don't give me that _sentimental value_ bullshit. It's a mobile phone, for heaven's sake."

The man's eyes widen innocently. "But it _does_ have sentimental value. You gave it to me," he says, and then starts laughing at the cold look Seto levels at him.

"So, uh…" the younger Yugi asks, looking between them. "You two are going to duel, and not us…?" He looks oddly relieved and offended about it, all at once.

"Yes, and we'll do it right now. I have the corporation Duel Platform ready and set to go," Seto says, and gives the elder Yugi a look. "I trust they still _use_ Duel Platforms in your time."

"Sort of," the man agrees thoughtfully. "Well, not really. They're sort of –"

"Obsolete?" the younger Yugi asks, his tone pointed. "Like Duel Disks?"

"Yeah, kind of. Some people still use them, but it's pretty rare. More a nostalgia thing, really."

"Then what the hell do you use?" Seto asks, curious and bothered all at once.

"I thought it would be obvious," the elder Yugi says, blinking at him. "Why do you think my phone has an h-pad in the first place?"

Seto narrows his eyes. He is getting that phone. It _is_ going to be his – and damn the expenses.


	7. Mischief Managed

"And that's about that," Yugi says, leaning his elbows onto the Duel Platform's card table and looking over the expanse of the stage to Kaiba, who stands behind his own card table at the other side, glaring at him. The only monster standing on the stage between them is the Silent Swordsman, level nine – with the attack power of fifty-five hundred. That had been quite enough to beat the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and to wipe out the last of Kaiba's life points.

"What? You didn't think I was going to go easy on you, did you?" Yugi asks, smiling. Poor Kaiba. He had no idea what he had been getting himself into. The man didn't known his deck, not the way the Kaiba of the future did – didn't know to expense the LV. Monsters and the many, many ways Yugi can power them up.

Well, he knows now – just a fraction of it, since Yugi has a lot more tricks up his sleeve than the two Silents, but he knows a bit. If they had another duel, it would probably be a bit more difficult for Yugi.

"Your deck is different," Kaiba answers with a glower while starting to return his cards to his deck.

"Actually it isn't, not that much," Yugi answers, taking the Silent Swordsman from the table and making the hologram on the stage vanish. "This is my old deck; I haven't changed it in years. Imagine what it would've been like if I had used all the _new_ cards, the ones that haven't even been developed yet," he adds with a grin. If he had been playing with his phone, Kaiba's head would've been screwed oh so bad.

While the billionaire keeps on glaring at him, Yugi returns his deck to its holster and then jumps down from the stage to join his younger self and his grandfather. "How was that?" he asks his younger self. He’s secretly relieved that Atemu's still in the Puzzle, though the spirit must've been watching through Yugi's eyes.

"Your deck seems to be a lot like the one I've been thinking of making," his past self answers thoughtfully, giving him a look. "You really haven't changed it in a while, have you?"

"I do have other decks, and the one I play with the most is a virtual one, not physical," Yugi shrugs. "This is the only one I carry with me, though. Sentimental value."

"Oh, shut up," Kaiba groans, coming over while shoving his own deck into his holster with annoyed force. "Why didn't you use the god cards?"

"Wha – oh, yeah, I don't play with them," Yugi shrugs. "They're pretty much banned from every place and tournament, and people won't play me at all if they think I have them in my deck."

Kaiba considers that, and then nods begrudgingly. "So what do you want for your new identification?" he asks, glaring at Yugi. "A name picked out, what sort of schooling I should fake for you, anything?"

"Um… actually, no," Yugi answers awkwardly, not having thought of it at all – he hadn't thought it would be this easy. "Hmmm… what do you think?" he asks his younger self, who frowns at him thoughtfully.

"Well you can't be Mutou Yugi, that's for sure," his younger self says, and glances at Sugoroku, who was looking thoughtfully towards the empty stage. "Grandpa?"

"Hm. I was thinking that maybe we could play you off as being related to the family – that hair's a bit obvious and I don't suppose you'd be willing to dye it," the old man says, at which Yugi shakes his head. "Didn't think so. However, if we try and say that you're Yugi's cousin or some other distant relative, it might be somewhat awkward… you never having been around and no one having ever heard of you, and all."

"Let's just slap a random name on him and tell everyone he's the midget's biggest fan. No one will think about it twice," Kaiba mutters.

"No need to be a sore loser," Yugi grins at him, and then thinks about it. "I think I'd want a name that sounds familiar," he says. "Call me something like Kenji and I'll never know when people are talking to me. Something that starts with Yu."

They thought about it for a while, Yugi going mentally through all the names he knew that started with Yu and discarding a lot of them. Yudao and Yusuke and so forth just doesn't sound like him.

"How about Yuto?" Yugi's own past self suggests, looking up at him. "It's different, but kind of the same, and sounds a bit like a mix of both my names."

"And Minamoto for surname. Minamoto Yuto," Sugoroku says.

"Why Minamoto?" Yugi asks, tilting his head.

His grandfather shrugs. "Our family is partially descended from the Minamoto clan. It seems fitting," he says, giving Yugi a once over. "And you don't look like a Fujiwara to me."

"Oh, thanks," Yugi grumbles, but takes a moment to consider it. Minamoto doesn't sound all that familiar, but he supposes he could get used to it. And Yuto… yeah, that could work. Definitely better than Yusuke. "Minamoto Yuto. I guess I could live with that," he muses, though it seems like a forfeit somehow, to give up his name. If he's going to be here for a long while – if he's going to be here _forever_ , then… would it mean that he really can't be Mutou Yugi again? Not ever?

It may be necessary, but that doesn't mean that he has to like it. Or that he needs to ever think of himself as Minamoto. Or Yuto, for that matter.

"Minamoto Yuto, then," Kaiba says, rolling his eyes. "Anything else? You'd probably want medical and school records – anything I need to know?"

"Yeah, some, though…" Yugi frowns, thinking about it. He had studied game design in Nagoya. Faking that record would be maybe a bit tough – not that Kaiba couldn't do it, but should anyone call the university and ask about him… plus he sort of wants a resume, one that he can actually safely use. But can he go into game design again?

"I kind of want to have an equivalent of my actual education. And at least some of my resume, somehow, though I guess I could just rebuild it…" Frowning a bit, he turns to his younger self, who is looking up to him curiously. "Do you mind if I go to for the game design business?"

"You design _games_ for living?" past-Yugi asks with shock while both Kaiba and Sugoroku blink at him with surprise.

"Well… yes. As a freelancer – people hire me to design games for them, mostly board and card games, and stuff like that. And I occasionally sell the designs of ones I come up with myself to bigger companies. Isn't that what you're planning to do?" Yugi asks, raising his eyebrows.

"I haven't really thought about it," his younger self says, still looking up with him in shock. "I thought I'd be playing in tournaments for a living. I mean… I'm a decent duellist and a lot of players less experienced than me make their living like that."

"I thought that too," Sugoroku admits, looking at Yugi. "Yugi could easily make a fortune just by playing Duel Monsters – you mean to tell us you _don't_?"

"Oh, that's right," Yugi murmurs and frowns. He had forgotten – that had been his plan, before Egypt. After that, he hadn't wanted to play Duel Monsters _at all_ , not to mention playing it for living. It had taken him months to even look at his deck again. That was why he had gone to Nagoya in the first place – to get away from the game.

"So, you _don't_ mind?" he asks awkwardly.

"Why would I mind?" his younger self asks, looking at him oddly.

"Because I would, if you were about to invent and get the credit of all the things I could just as well be making myself," Yugi answers with a shrug. "But if you don't mind, then…" he turns to Kaiba, who is looking at him with a strange gleam in his eyes. "What?"

"You design games for living," the billionaire says thoughtfully. "Any good?"

"I designed a few for you," Yugi shrugs. "You seemed satisfied."

"Indeed? Hmm…" the brown haired teenager eyes him for a long moment and then smiles – rather like a snake. Or a wolf. "I think I can come up with plausible records for you. Tell me, those games of yours. You wouldn't happen to be able to remake them?"

"Why? So that you can publish them ahead of time?" Yugi asks, and rests his hands at his hips. "Aren't you at all worried about changing the future, Kaiba?"

"Not in the slightest," the teen answers with a smirk.

Yugi snorts and shakes his head. Well, if nothing else, Kaiba is the exact same as he is in the future. "I'll consider it. If you make the ID and records for me, and so on, I think I might feel like indulging your game interests. Can you do it?"

"Oh, in my sleep," Kaiba answers with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Give me a day and I'll have Minamoto Yuto a legal citizen of Domino. Any preferences for a birthplace?"

"Make it Domino, but make all my school records in Nagoya. I'm familiar enough with the place to fake it," Yugi answers. Even if he has to fake it, he'd be damned before he'd forfeit his birthplace, too. "Also, no living parents or close relatives."

"Obviously," Kaiba says, rolling his eyes and then considering it. "So, you were born in Domino but raised in Nagoya, and I expect you're just moving back into Domino? And you want to work in game development. Hm. Do you want a degree, though? Because as good records as I might be able to fake, they might not hold water if someone decides to call your supposed teachers."

"Yeah, there is that," Yugi sighs. "I guess I'll have to be self-taught. It seems to be working fine for you, after all."

"I already have a highly successful occupation, not to mention major shares in a multi-billion yen corporation and several very skilled stockbrokers in my employ," Kaiba answers with a look. "I don't need a degree."

"No need to rub it in my face," Yugi says with a laugh.

"So, uh," his younger version says awkwardly. "It's all settled, then?"

"It's fine. Just give me a day and you'll have all the right papers," Kaiba says. "I can do it in less, but it will take at least that long to get my hands on the right sort of machinery to print out a driver's licence and some cards. You know how to drive, right?"

"Yes, I know how to drive," Yugi answers.  "So, do you have all the knowledge you need now, or…?"

"Yes. There is one more thing, though," Kaiba says and folds his arms. "About that phone…"

"Nope," Yugi says quickly, stepping back. Though he has to admit, it is damn tempting – a bit of money would solve a whole _load_ of his problems, mainly the one about staying in the same house as his younger self and Atemu, but… "I'll think about it, okay, but you're not ambushing me first thing and swindling a deal out of me which might just as well turn out poorly for me. We'll talk about it when you get the ID papers, maybe."

"Fine," Kaiba says, giving him an irritated look before glancing between Yugi and past-Yugi, who is staring up at them thoughtfully. "I'll hold you to that. Now get the hell out of my building, all of you; you're giving me a headache."

"Till tomorrow, then," Yugi says, glancing at his younger self and Grandfather, who, after a moment of hesitation, turn to leave with him.

"Is this okay?" The younger Yugi asks as they head for the exit. "I mean, this is all pretty illegal. What if we get caught?"

"Kaiba Seto, get caught? That'd be the day," Yugi answers with a laugh, and lifts up the hood of his dark blue hooded vest – or past-Yugi's hooded vest. There's no real point to it, but there were some paparazzi lingering about the building's entrance, and past-Yugi is currently something of a celebrity. Yugi doesn't feel like being drawn into that just yet.

"It'll be fine," Yugi adds. "Kaiba's the best guy for the job, and even if it isn't exactly what he _does_ on a regular basis, he'll go about it the long way."

"How so?" Sugoroku asks thoughtfully. "Granted, getting machines just so that he can print the proper cards, that's not a small effort, but –"

"An ID is only as good as the corresponding records in the system," Yugi shrugs. "You can have all the birth certificates and medical records in the world, but if there is no hospital with matching records, they don't mean much. Kaiba can create those matching records – he _is_ the best hacker in the world."

"He is?" his past self asks with surprise.

"Well. He's Kaiba Seto. I think it sort of goes with the territory," Yugi says thoughtfully. "Though I'm still not sure if it's because of the territory of being Kaiba Seto or the territory of running a huge-ass company with a ton of enemies."

"Language, young man," Sugoroku says automatically, without looking at him.

"Sorry, Grandpa."

"You know a lot about this," past-Yugi says, looking up at him with a frown.

Yugi shrugs. "Weird life, what can I say. And I occasionally work for Kaiba, so I get to see what goes on behind the scenes. You wouldn't believe the amount of industrial spying going on in the gaming world."

"Actually, I sort of can," his younger self says. "If all game developers are as weird as Pegasus and Kaiba… yeah, it makes sense."

"Oh, thanks. That makes me feel oh so much better about myself," Yugi grins at the shorter version of himself, whose eyes widen in shock.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean _you_!" the teenager quickly objects.

Yugi just laughs, shaking his head. _'Oh, you would,'_ he thinks, looking away from the teen and the gleam of gold at his chest. _'If you really knew me, you'd find me the weirdest of them all. And maybe the most disturbing, too.'_


	8. Playing the Melody

The trip to the Kaiba Corp. had taken longer than they had assumed and by the time they make it back home, it's already getting dark. While Grandpa heads to the kitchen to make dinner, he points Yugi – both of them – to the guest room, to make it ready for future-Yugi for the night. It both startles and relieves Yugi a bit, to realise that his future self is staying there for the night, though at the same time….

The guest room seems somehow wrong. "You could sleep in my room," he suggests as they make the bed in the guest room. "It is sort of your room too."

"No. It's fine," his future self says with a shake of a head. "And it really isn't."

Yugi frowns a bit at that but when his older self just throws a smile at him he lets it go. It still feels off, somehow. Almost as if he would take the Puzzle into another room for the night – just… wrong. Future-Yugi is another self of him, after all – and Yugi's sort of gotten used to keeping his _other_ selves close.

It's a bit surprising to realise that, despite all the awkwardness, that somehow includes future-Yugi too.

"You know, I think this should be weirder," he says while straightening the sheets.

"Weirder? It _isn't_ weird for you?" his future self asks, giving him an odd look.

"Well… yes, but not as much as it was in the beginning. I guess that's the side effect of having met people like Pegasus and Bakura and Marik," Yugi says, sighing. His future self acts a bit weird and Yugi doesn't _understand_ him – but…. "Well, it happened, you're here and probably to stay, and that's that. I could keep freaking out about it, but… nah."

His elder self chuckles at that and then sits down on the bed. "That's that, huh," he murmurs, idly plucking his rings off one by one and jingling them in his palm. "I was surprisingly mellow when I was younger," he murmurs to himself.

"You aren't anymore?" Yugi asks, wondering if he can, if he ought to – but he _does_ want to know more about his older self and this seems a bit safer subject matter than whatever difficulties future-Yugi has with the Puzzle.

"Well, maybe, but not as much," his future self says, looking at him. "Nothing _that_ weird or magical has happened to me in a long while and I've gotten used to things being… well, semi normal," he explains. "So for me this is pretty special."

Yugi considers that and then sits down beside his elder self, taking care not to touch or jostle the Puzzle too much - trying to avoid drawing his elder self's attention to it since it seems to bother the man so much, which then bothers the spirit. "What is the future like?" he asks, while casually shifting so that the lapel of his jacket covers most of the Millennium Item.

 _'I'm sorry, my other self,'_ he adds silently, guilty about hiding the Puzzle the way he is – as if he's ashamed of it. _'But he seems to be in a better mood now, and….'_

 _'I understand, partner, it is alright,'_ the spirit assures him, though it's obvious how much the whole thing bothers him too.

"The future, huh?" the man says and at least seems to have missed the way Yugi covered the Puzzle. "It's not that different. The technology's more advanced, sure, some things have happened, big and small… but people are pretty much the same. On a personal level of course it's different, when one compares your life with mine – you're still in school, after all. But…" he considers it. "Overall the world is pretty much the same."

"How are the others doing?" Yugi asks. "You are still friends with everyone, right? You still hang out with Kaiba."

Future-Yugi snorts. "You can't really call it _hanging out_ ," he says, shaking his head. "But yeah, I still keep in contact with everyone. Jonouchi plays Duel Monsters professionally, so he's travelling pretty much non-stop for tournaments, but we see each other whenever he's in town – oh, and he's married and has two kids."

Yugi nearly chokes on his own tongue at the sound of that. " _Jou_?" he asks with disbelief. "Kids?!"

"Oh yeah," his elder self says, grinning widely. "Two darling girls, he spoils them rotten," he adds before leaning back against the wall. "Anzu's living in Tokyo, so I don't see her as often as I'd like, but every now and then. She's an actor," he says, smiling fondly. "She tried to go for the dancing career but I think there was something about her weight or something? I don't know, but she went to drama school instead. She's doing pretty well."

"Huh," Yugi mutters, his eyes a bit wide at the thought of his friends having _careers_. And _kids_. Seriously, Jonouchi, with kids? "What about Honda?"

"He's in the self-defence forces. He originally joined the ground forces and was only going to stay for the two year term, but after that he went to the NationalDefenceAcademy for officer training," his elder self says. "He finished the academy just last year actually. Last I heard of him, he was aiming to stay in the military for as long as he could."

"Whoa," Yugi murmurs and then considers it. Yeah, it somehow seems fitting. "Did he and Shizuka ever…?"

"Ah, no. He went into the military, she went to study to become a doctor," his elder self says and shrugs. "I hear that she's one hell of an optometrist, but that might be just be Jou boasting. I haven't seen her in a while myself." The man shifts a bit, lifting his feet onto the bed and resting his elbows to his bent knees. "Otogi didn't start anything with her either, by the way," he adds. "He went to business school – and finally launched Dungeon Dice Monsters properly."

Yugi nods thoughtfully. "And Kaiba's still Kaiba. Hmm. How's Bakura?"

His elder self is quiet for a while. "He moved to the United Kingdom back in… two thousand and one, wasn't it?" he murmurs. "I haven't seen him since."

"Why not?" Yugi asks curiously. "You aren't friends anymore?"

His elder self just shakes his head. "People change – and some people need change. He was just one of them," he says. "I think he might be making games for a living too – there’s this one board game that looks a lot like the ones he used to make, but…."

"Oh."

They're quiet for a moment while Yugi considers the man's words – not just about Bakura but about the rest too. It makes him a bit dizzy to realise that _he knows his friends' futures_ all of a sudden. Even if in general terms. "Should you be telling me this?" he asks, a bit bewildered with the realisation that he's, sort of, sitting next to a fortune-teller of all things.

The time traveller laughs at that, leaning his head back – and for one moment Yugi is obscurely jealous about his neck, the obvious muscle tone lining it. "Probably not," his elder self says and looks down to him. "But it might be that none of it will happen here. Especially now that I've told you."

"Yeah, maybe," Yugi agrees, and leans against the wall too. When the Puzzle isn't in between them, his elder self is actually pretty easy to talk to. It makes him feel like a cheat, somehow, or maybe like a traitor, but without the awkwardness and the weird looks… he rather likes his elder self. He's nothing like what Yugi imagined he might become himself, but future-Yugi is somehow….

 _'Compelling,'_ the spirit says from the Puzzle.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Even when the awkwardness is there and so obvious, Yugi's future is still somehow… compelling. There's no other way to put it – and Yugi can't even imagine how the man had become like that because he himself is certainly in no way –

 _'Yes you are,'_ the spirit cuts in, amused. _'You just don't realise it. I think he has not just realised but he's embraced it and now it comes more easily for him, than it does you.'_

 _'I do not – I am not – what are you even talking –?'_ Yugi objects, automatically reaching to touch the Puzzle – and then stops.

His elder self doesn't look at him, he just sort of sighs and the easy atmosphere from before is broken. Yugi manages to only barely keep himself from slumping down in disappointment. "Sorry," he murmurs, lowering his hand while inside the Puzzle the spirit winces.

"What?" the man asks, glancing at him.

"Sorry. It bothers you for some reason, but it's not like I can just leave him –" Yugi stops, shaking his head, and shifts, holding the Puzzle so that it's hidden in his arms.

"You really don't need to apologise," the man says, leaning back again and closing his eyes for a moment. "And, ah… It's not _him_ that bothers me," he adds. "I don't want him to think that. It's not really the Puzzle either."

"Then what is it?" Yugi asks a bit plaintively.

The man considers it for a moment. "That's hard to say, actually," he says then and motions at himself, not opening his eyes. "At the risk of sounding like an idiot: you must've noticed I don't have the Puzzle anymore."

"Y-yeah, it's kind of obvious," Yugi murmurs.

"Well, there are a lot of reasons why not, some of them even good ones," the man says. "It's the _bad_ ones that bother me. And they'll probably keep on bothering me until I die. It's not your fault, it's not even his fault – if it's anyone's fault then it's my own."

"But…" Yugi trails away as he realises suddenly that he actually doesn't want to know. Because if what the man's saying is true – then he's angry at himself, not at the spirit. Which means that… what ever happened was future-Yugi's fault? At least maybe partially?

Bowing his head a bit, Yugi frowns in concentration. Had future-Yugi driven the spirit away somehow, and been forced to relinquish the Puzzle because of it? And now he regrets it? And would the same eventually happen to Yugi?

 _'No, that can't have been it,'_ the spirit hurriedly assures. _'Nothing you could do would do that. And look at him. He might be blaming himself, but regardless of what he says he's blaming me too. He can't even look at the Puzzle and that's not just guilt – that's anger. What happened must've been… mutual.'_

 _'And how is that any better?'_ Yugi asks with disbelief.

 _'It… isn't,'_ the spirit agrees faintly.

"I shouldn't have said anything," the future him sighs and glances toward him. "You're going fret about this the whole night now, aren't you?

"I don't fret," Yugi frowns a bit at that, and can't quite make up his mind on whether it was an insult or not. From anyone else it would've been – but from _himself_ , his own future self? It’s strange and yet somehow wise and he doesn't know how to take it. "Do I?" he asks, a bit confused.

His elder self chuckles at that. "Oh, trust me. You never grow out of it," he assures and then stands up. "Come on. Let's see if Grandpa needs help with that food – I'm getting hungry here."

"Yeah, okay," Yugi murmurs and stands up, pausing a moment to smooth out the wrinkles he had left behind on the bed sheets and then, once his older self was out of the room, to think.

Reasons for separation, good and bad ones. How, exactly, does that translate into his future self thinking he's in _hell_ at the sight of the spirit?

 _'Regret can be a powerful thing, partner. And a terrible one,'_ the spirit answers his unspoken thoughts solemnly.

 _'Yeah, but… that bad?'_ Yugi wonders in dismay. _'Other me… do you want to know what happened? Between him and the spirit he had, with him and his Puzzle? I'm getting the feeling that it might not be good, but….'_

That much regret. He doesn't want that to be his future – doesn't want to be left behind, regretting so much that ten years later it's still bad enough to incapacitate him. Despite how bad it might be, he wants to know – and he wants to know it _before_ it's too late to stop whatever happened to future-Yugi from happening to him, to _them_.

 _'Yes. As do I,'_ the spirit answers, though uneasily. _'The problem is… knowing might be worse. And have worse consequences.'_

 _'Than regretting something for ten years?'_ Yugi asks with disbelief and then bites his lip. After all, there are worse things. Like being left in the dark for thousands of years. _'Sorry, my other self, I didn't mean to….  This is just bothering me.'_

 _'Yes, I know,'_ the spirit answers, and Yugi can hear a smile in his thoughts. _'Go on, get something to eat. We will have time to talk about this later.'_


	9. Are You Challenging Me?

Sugoroku isn't all that surprised that he's the first one in the house awake the next morning – he usually is, unless Yugi pulls an all-nighter and doesn't sleep at all. This time the shop keeper is awake a bit earlier than usual – namely because he hadn't been sleeping quite as easy as he would've liked, his mind spinning with too many thoughts.

If he is perfectly honest about it, the future version of his grandson bothers him – quite a bit. It's not that he’s not proud to see the man his grandson is going to become – the Yugi of the future is obviously a strong, independent and even well-to-do man, who knows both his strengths and his limits. Yugi could become a much, much worse individual, to be honest – but thankfully even with all the black clothing, leather, piercings and whatnot, he’s not a bad person, neither as a teenager nor as an adult.

The problem Sugoroku has is that while his younger Yugi is happy… the future one is obviously not. And judging by the slight creasing of skin around his eyes, the hints of dark shadows, he hasn't been happy in a long while. The man's smiles _never_ seem to reach his eyes. Not fully.

Sighing to himself while turning the kettle on and starting to prepare some tea and breakfast, Sugoroku wonders about it, just as he has been doing for the whole night previous it seems. He knows what the cause it – that is painfully and maybe a bit pitifully obvious. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, and the fact that _he had moved on_. And about that… Sugoroku has some mixed feelings.

The spirit is _dead_ after all – and more or less haunting his grandson. Sugoroku knows the importance – the prophesies, some of the past – which is part of the reason he has never said a word against it. Mainly though he never objects because Yugi is so obviously content and never seems to mind his companion. But at the same time Sugoroku's always known, in a vague, obscure sense, that it is not going to be a permanent arrangement.

He's always known that one day his grandson would be freed, and be able to continue his life alone, independent and undisturbed. And to him it has always been a good thing, a happy thought – something to, secretly, look forward to. One day his Yugi would be just and only himself again….

What he hadn't even considered is how perfectly unhappy that would make his grandson. Maybe for a while, yes, maybe for a few days, weeks, a couple months….

But _ten years_? And judging by the way the future version of his grandson keeps flinching whenever he's near to the Puzzle – or whenever he so much as accidentally glances at it – ten years will be just the start of it.

Sighing, Sugoroku pours the water and sits down to wait for the tea to seep, looking at the clock hanging over the kitchen door.

Possession is maybe a bit wrong, he has to admit. Haunting isn't right either, not if it is _that_ important to Yugi. Joining is maybe closer to the truth. Especially when Sugoroku takes into consideration that _apparition_ he had seen, all those years ago in the tomb of the games. The spectre that had saved his life.

The spectre, who looked awfully like Yugi does now.

There is the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and Sugoroku looks up to see the future version of his grandson coming into the kitchen. "Morning, Grandpa," the man says with a yawn, while Sugoroku leans back to take him in.

The biggest difference between this man and his grandson is the way they move, Sugoroku decides. Even when half asleep, the man moves with a sort of… not quite confidence, but ease that Yugi doesn't. Though the old habit of slouching his shoulders and dragging his heels is leaving Yugi – thanks to the spirit's influence, no doubt – this man moves without any hint of it. He's _sure_ in a way Yugi isn't, unconcerned and unashamed where Yugi is self-conscious and often awkward.

Which is actually kind of weird since, between the two of them, it's the elder version who is infinitely more awkward – though that might be just because almost every time Sugoroku's observed him fully, Yugi's been there – with the Puzzle, making things difficult for his elder version.

"You're up early. Did you sleep well?" Sugoroku asks instead of commenting. "There's tea, if you want some," he adds and then watches how the man goes about getting a cup.

"I slept well enough. The pillow was lumpy," the man whom his Grandson might one day turn into says and pours the tea before falling to sit across from Sugoroku. "And I'm used to there being more traffic outside – it was too quiet."

"That's what you get for moving out," Sugoroku smiles, sipping his tea and then lowering the cup and folding his arms. "So, what's the plan for today?"

Future-Yugi considers it and then shrugs. "I think I'll go see Kaiba alone about the ID and stuff," he says then. "There are some things I want to talk to him about and it might take a while, no reason for you to waste your time there."

"You're going to sell the phone to him, then?" Sugoroku asks, amused.

"Maybe," the man answers with a faint smile. "It is handy to have around and I'm still a bit worried about giving him future technology, but when it comes down to it… I really could use the money to get started here," he admits.

"You're going to get your own place as soon as you can, huh?" the older man asks, frowning a bit.

"Yeah. Not that I don't like it here, it's just that…. It'll be easier," the man admits with a sigh, scratching his messy hair. "Also I want to talk about how I ended up here with Kaiba. It might be no use, but if anyone can figure it out, it's him."

Sugoroku nods at that, sighing. He wishes he could help more, personally, but this goes way over his head too. And the man before him _is_ twenty seven years old. He deserves to make his own choices, regardless of how bad Sugoroku thinks they are. "What about your younger self, though?"

The future version of his grandson pauses at that, turning the tea cup in his hand as he thinks. "What about him?" he finally asks.

"Are you going to tell him what happened? If you're going to sell Kaiba your phone, you're already changing the future beyond recognition," the old man points out. "In comparison to that, how bad can telling him be?"

"Bad," future-Yugi answers, glancing up. "Don't look at me like that. I've been thinking about this for ten years, what I'd do if I got another chance – and I still don't know," he sighs. "I could make things better, sure, but…  I could make it so much worse too."

"What happened, exactly?" Sugoroku demands to know. "The spirit moved on, sure, but something else must've happened too."

There is a moment of quiet before the man across from him shrugs. "The way it happened was all ceremonial – a duel, actually – but later I realised it wasn't really a duel at all. The duel was just a symbol – what really happened was a choice. A decision we made together," he says finally. "Except, we didn't actually. We didn't really talk about it, not before and afterwards it was too late, so I don't really know. I didn't ask him, and he didn't tell me, so…."

Sugoroku frowns at that and then sighs. "You wanted him to stay, but you don't know if he did," he murmurs.

"Yeah. I just told him I'd be fine, that it was okay, because what if I asked and then… he said he _didn't_ want to stay?" future-Yugi says, sighing. "And there were things I didn't tell him – things I kept secret from him. What if I had told him? Would he have wanted to stay – or leave all the more?"

"I see," Sugoroku sighs. It almost sounds like Yugi had had a bad break up, except not with a lover but what Sugoroku now admits might just as well be _another half of him_. He almost wants to ask the man if he had been in love with the spirit… but he doesn't really need to.

Is it same for the younger Yugi? Probably, considering his reaction to the elder Yugi's lack of the Puzzle. It explains a whole lot in any case, not just about future-Yugi but about Sugoroku's actual grandson too. Why he's so comfortable with the spirit for one – it wasn't just past loneliness that made him cling to everyone nearby so tightly. Which is good, in a way… but then again, it is also bad.

Would be bad, if they are to separate.

"Why you?" he asks instead, looking at the adult version of his grandson. "Why did it have to be you who has to go through all this – all that?"

The man grins at him – and maybe it almost reaches his eyes, but not quite. "I'm just special that way, I guess," he says and drains his tea. "Now I'm gonna take a shower and then head out, if you don't mind. Lots to do. Business and illegal ID dealings and stuff like that."

The old man gives him an unimpressed look. "You know, I'm starting to think you're a bit of a coward. If you're going to stay in this time, you can't run away from him."

His elder grandson freezes half way out of the chair – and then laughs. "I can try, can't I?" he then says. "And stop being so perceptive, you're giving me the creeps."

"I'll give you more than that if you don't get your head out of your ass," Sugoroku mutters.

"Grandpa! Language!" the man gasps with mock horror.

The old man rolls his eyes and then gives him a look. "They deserve to know. Both of them. You made your choice – and it was obviously the wrong one –" he has to hold back a wince at the look that the man gives him, but pushes onwards regardless. "But theirs is still ahead of them – don't let them make your mistakes. And besides, there is something I don't think you've considered."

"And what is that?" his grandson's future self asks awkwardly.

"You didn't know if he wanted to stay or leave and you didn't dare to ask because you didn't want to hear the wrong answer," Sugoroku says, pointing a finger at him. "But what about him? What if _he_ didn't know either? And what if _he_ didn't dare to ask – not wanting to hear you say that you wanted him gone?"

Judging by the dumbstruck look that comes over the younger man's face, he really never has considered it. Sugoroku nods with satisfaction and stands up. "Think about it, Yugi," he says. "There are always two sides to every argument. Even one that is never had."

As his grandson's elder self more or less stumbles out of the kitchen, Sugoroku goes about getting some breakfast, smiling smugly all the while. He might be old and forgettable these days, but he has a lot more experience than both Yugi's combined – and he can probably include the spirit in that too. Lots of experience, maybe not with magic and soul bonding, but with love, certainly.

Hopefully that experience would help his foolish grandsons now, somehow. And if not, then… well, he has other tricks up his sleeve. And it's still rather gratifying, to be able to figure out something his grandson, the illustrious King of Games, can't.

Sugoroku is just done with the omelette when future-Yugi comes back into the kitchen, his hair sagging slightly and his face a bit red – he still takes entirely too hot showers, it seems. "Any of that for me?" the future version of Sugoroku's grandson asks hopefully while trying to put his earrings on.

"Have at it," the old man answers, motioning him to get a plate. The younger man stalls long enough to get one of his ankh earrings on before quickly going about taking a portion of the food.

"So, when are you going to head out to meet Kaiba?" the old man asks.

"I figured I'd go as soon as possible. I have a feeling that once we get to fighting over the phone, it might take a while. Best to start early and we might even finish at some sensible hour," the man answers, sitting down and then easing the other earring on as well. As he does, Sugoroku can't help but notice that he has actually more holes in his ear lobes than the ones with the ankh hoops in – three in the lower ear lobe alone, and maybe more near the top.

For all that his grandson has grown up to be a good looking man, Sugoroku has to face the fact that he's also grown into a rather… rough one. At least as far as his sense of style went.

"You know," the old gamer says thoughtfully while watching him. "I've endured the hair and the leather and the belts and the rest. Piercings… I think I can handle that too – don't tell me if you have any below your ears, though, I don't want to know. But you don't have any tattoos, right?"

The younger man gives him a wide eyed look. "Tattoos? Me?" he asks with exaggerated innocence. "Why, Grandpa, I don't know what you're talking about."


	10. 67%

"… And of course, it connects to the internet once the wireless networks get good enough, and you can use it to browse the 'net pretty much the same way as any old computer," Yuto finished his very long list of all the things the mobile phone in his possession could do. "Except, you know, only where there's connection for it."

"Ah," Seto answers, turning the phone in his hands. His heart is still pounding a bit, after all the devices and uses Yuto had shown him, the very least of which were the image capturing abilities – and it could record sound and moving picture too, for god's sake!

"So. With a sales pitch like that, I think you are considering selling this to me," he says, already wondering how difficult it would be to reverse engineer it. He doesn't need all of the phone's functions in the start – hell, he'd own the market just with the picture quality of the screen alone! – but he still wants them all, every last bit of hardware and software he can squeeze out of the device.

"I'm thinking about it," Yugi admits, leaning his cheek against his ring adorned fingers, looking at him keenly – and Seto's for a moment is a bit unnerved by how alike his eyes are to Mutou Yugi's, and yet how different they are. This man is _cunning_ in a way Yugi isn't and it's very strange to see it in eyes so much like Yugi's.

"So, what do you want for it?" Seto asks, pushing aside his feelings and instead calculating the phone's worth. With the functions and features… if he managed to reverse engineer them, he'd be pretty much without opposition once the remade model hit the market. He'd be the only supplier of the technology – at least for now – and in the start he could set the price pretty much where ever he wanted to.

Yuto was right – he'd make a _killing_. And if he trickles the functions to the market bit by bit, one model with one advancement instead of them all in once model… even if his rivals caught up with the first couple phones he launched and their advancements, he'd still have more functions to add to the later models.

Yuto knows that too, though. And if two billion yen isn't enough for the man, whatever he'd ask would be steep indeed. But, if Seto works the deal right… it might just be worth it.

"Money, first of all, though not as much as two billion – I wouldn't know what to do with that sort of money. Ten million maybe, or something like that," Yuto says it almost idly, though his eyes are hard. "Secondly, I want shares."

" _Excuse_ me?" Seto almost growls.

"With this thing, Kaiba Corp. is going to rule the global electronics markets for years to come. You know you're not just going to draw mobile phones out of that thing – no, there will be laptops and tablet computers and probably half a dozen gaming systems," Yuto says and Seto realises, begrudgingly, that he's probably right. "And with the advanced h-pad, your hologram systems are going to take a ten year leap ahead. That alone is worth a fortune. And I want my share of it. Literally."

"Tch," Seto grunts out but he has to admit, Yuto's not stupid. If it was him on the other end of the table, in Yuto's place, he'd probably try and weasel his share of the future glory too. "And what else?"

"I want you or some egghead of yours to look into how I ended up in this place and what I should expect. Am I stuck here? Is it even remotely possible that I might ever get back to my time?" Yuto asks and shrugs. "That sort of thing."

"Hm. Actually, I already looked into it, in a sense," Seto admits, setting the mobile phone on the table. "I have no way of finding out _how_ of course – I don't have the device responsible – but I looked into the theories people currently have on time travel. And, unless you remember any of this happening to you in your past, then you are very much stuck."

"Ah," Yuto murmurs with a sigh, and looks away. "I sort of figured that, but I want to know for sure."

"I'll have someone look into it in more detail, but in your place I wouldn't hold any hopes," Seto says coolly. "So," he murmurs thoughtfully, his eyes turning to the invaluable phone again. "Ten million and shares of Kaiba Corporation. You do know I can't in good conscience give you more than three percent or less, right?"

Yuto narrows his eyes. "What, do you think I'd really stab you in the back, and sell them to your enemies or something?" he asks and then smiles somewhat grimly. "I know what the corporation is going to become in the near future. I'd be an idiot to sell. Hell, you could even think of me as a security investment of your own. Besides. You'd still be a principal shareholder, wouldn't you? Unless you gave me a good fifty percent of the shares, that is."

"Tch," Seto hisses. The future idiot isn't an idiot after all – he actually knows something about how corporations are run, huh. "Five percent of common stock and no more."

"Preferred," Yuto objects.

" _Common_ ," Seto grows back.

"Fine. Five percent of common stock and a _hundred_ million then," Yuto says and smiles at the look Seto levels at him. "Five percent of common stock is pathetically low, so yeah. A hundred million." The look on his face is almost ferocious. "I want a nest egg."

A nest egg, huh? "Tch. Seems like you've grown a backbone, _Yuto,_ " Seto snorts at the man and then tilts his head a bit. "What stops me from just taking this phone and walking out of here?"

"Nothing, I guess," Yuto shrugs. "Except the fact that I am familiar with the specifics and I know your enemies. I might not have as hard a gem to offer them as the phone itself, but I can warn them of what you're going to do and give them the bones of what you have to work with. Plus," he says, smiling, "I know your security system. And industrial spying is a bitch."

Seto has to laugh at that – it sounds so absurd coming from a version of _Mutou Yugi_ of all people. And yet this man isn't Mutou Yugi, not quite, and it seems he really knows what he's talking about. Back bone indeed. "Fine. You'll get your price," he says. All things considered, it's still pathetically low when compared to the sheer value of the phone itself. "You've changed from the Yugi I know."

"Hm. Time does that. And close association with _you_ probably didn't help," Yuto says, smiling faintly and then straightening a bit in his chair. "Now, when can I expect my money? I have a savings account to start, car to buy, flat to hunt down, and so on."

Seto rolls his eyes and reaches for his desk phone, hitting his secretary's line and then ordering the woman get the paper work for the purchase and to have the money delivered. He'd swing the purchase as buying an invention from an inventor and then cover it up as a company secret and no one would think of it twice.

"Where are you thinking of setting up shop, then?" Seto asks once the calls have been made.

"Near city centre again, if I can manage. I got used to the traffic, so it's a bit too quiet for me in the outskirts, like where Grandpa lives," Yuto answers, rising to his feet with a fluid motion and walking to the window, to look down. From where they are, on the fourteenth floor of the Kaiba Corp. headquarters, the city centre is no doubt easily visible. "I used to live just on the corner of the Main and Fourth," Yuto says. "It was a damn good flat, too. Hell, maybe this time I'll see if I can buy it, rather than just renting it."

Seto nods idly, turning on his swivel chair to watch the man. Yuto is not the tallest or most impressive of men, but there is a way about him, the way he stands and moves, that makes it hard not to watch him. "And then what?" he asks.

Yugi glances at him. "How do you mean?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.

"You're getting back into game development, I suppose?"

"Yeah, eventually. I'm going to try and settle in first," Yuto answers, looking outside again. "And yeah, I'll pitch whatever I'm willing to sell to you in case there might be something there you like. But shouldn't you be busy with the phone?"

"My corporation has various branches, _Yuto_. Just because one side might be working with the phone doesn't mean that it takes all the attention of the whole," the billionaire answers, unimpressed as he reaches for the phone again, turning the screen on from the power safe mode and then idly flicking through the interchangeable desktops.

"Maybe not," Yuto says, shrugging. "There are a lot of things to do first, though, so don't expect anything too soon."

"I won't," Seto answers and then frowns. "Where are all the pictures?" he then asks, flicking through the folder. He is pretty sure that the last time Yuto had let him handle the phone, there had been hundreds of them. Now there are only about thirty – all of them from the science expo. And there are _no_ video files at all.

"Oh, I took out the personal stuff. Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to see most of it," Yuto grins.

"How did you take it out?" Seto asks with suspicion. "You said that you don't have any of the cables for this thing."

"It has Bluetooth, you know. A bit more powerful than anything currently on the market and it took me a good two hours in the electronics store to find anything even remotely compatible, but I managed it," Yuto answers, digging out a security locker key from his pocket and jangling it on his finger. "The data's safely tucked away on the suckiest laptop I ever spent all my money on, and the laptop is safely tucked away in a locker at a nearby mall."

"I see," Seto murmurs, looking at the phone again. Well, Yuto's probably right – he has no interest in seeing the man's personal home movies. Especially considering the man's choice in outfits.

"By the way," Yuto says. "You can probably hack anything with Bluetooth without even trying, with that phone. Bluetooth security sucks in this time."

"I'll keep that in mind," the billionaire snorts, and then hides the phone away in his pocket as the secretary comes in with the paperwork for him and Yuto to sign – which they do quickly enough, ignoring the secretary's curious glances towards Yuto after the price of the unspecified sale has been penned in.

"So. What else do you know about the future that I might be interested in knowing?" Seto asks, once the secretary has left with orders to copy the contract in triplicate.

"Hm…. Sadly I was never _that_ into the business thing so I don't have anything useful for you about the stock market – except that that a bubble is going to burst in two thousand, I think it was in March," Yuto says. "Wasn't really paying attention at the time, but you cursed up a storm for two months afterwards."

Seto narrows his eyes. Bubble? But there wasn't – oh. _Damn_. He needs to schedule a meeting with his stockbrokers and quickly too. "Anything else?" he asks, frowning.

Yuto shrugs. "Nothing I remember, not in the near future anyway. On a more personal level, though: you might, if you're lucky, meet her in the summer of two-thousand and five, though this time try and not be an asshole to her from get-go," he says, pointing a finger at Seto. "Because seriously, she'll be one of the best things that will ever happen to you and your bachelor party was _epic_."

Seto nearly chokes. " _What_?!"

Yuto's still laughing and still not saying anything more when, about half an hour later, Seto's secretary comes in bearing a metal suitcase with a key code lock, carrying the hundred million Yuto had bargained out of him.

"Sweet, I've always wanted one of these," the man grins at the case, rapping his knuckles against the metallic surface. "Did you know, at some point someone actually markets these things as excellent self-defence weapons?"

"I don't care – and you are such a goddamn _cock tease_ , Yuto," Seto growls, annoyed and anxious and maybe a bit creeped out – because, well, two thousand and five is a long way ahead but… bachelor party? Did those usually go hand in hand with weddings? Oh _god_.

Sadly, while the words would've sent Yugi into embarrassed hysterics, Yuto doesn't seem in the least effected by the insult. "Yeah, I know; it's one of my finest skills," the man grins, while taking the suitcase and casually lifting it up so that he's hanging it at his back, over his shoulder. "Well, Kaiba, it was a pleasure doing business with you. Have fun reverse engineering and try not to overload the poor thing when you try recharging it."

"Just get out already," Seto groans, running a hand over his face. Maybe he _wouldn't_ look into Yuto's game making skills after all. He isn't sure if it would be worth the headaches.


	11. Breathe Again

It's silly how something like a plastic card can take so much weight off from your shoulders.

Flipping the credit card idly in his fingers, Yugi smiles faintly to himself. He had very nearly given the poor clerk at the bank a heart attack when he had walked in with a hundred million in a suitcase – and then the bank had of course run a back ground check _and_ insisted on calling Kaiba Seto himself just to make sure that Yugi wasn't a bank robber or something. But now he has what he needs to….

Well, do whatever he wants to, actually. Not just the money, but the IDs too – and they're damn fool-proof too if the bank couldn't find anything wrong with them. IDs, driver's licence, medical records, three bank accounts – stupid persuasive bank people had assured him that an investment account would be a good idea….

At this point he doesn't need to even return to his grandfather's game store at all – he could just get a room in a hotel, then start looking for a flat, stop by some place that sold cars to get himself a way to get around… maybe re-make his wardrobe while he was at it. And other things.

Sighing, Yugi stops in the middle of the road, flipping the credit card so that he can see his fake name on it. Minamoto Yuto. Kaiba had kept calling him that, and it hadn't sounded so bad. Breaking free with it would be so easy. Hell, he could even leave Domino all together, just leave all the confusion and heartbreak behind himself, never think of it twice, but….

_"What if he didn't know either? And what if he didn't dare to ask – not wanting to hear you say that you wanted him gone?"_

What if indeed. The more he thinks about those words, the more they bother him and the more he begins to doubt himself. Because… what had he really been doing, back all those years ago, after Atemu had regained himself and his memories, when the Ceremonial Duel had begun to loom ahead of them? What had he done? And not just done, but what had he _said_?

You don't need to hold back for my sake, I have other friends, I am fine, you can go on, I don't mind….

"Damn it," Yugi mutters to himself, glaring at the words, Minamoto Yuto, before taking out his wallet and practically shoving the card among the other new ones, between his driver’s licence and health insurance card.

Had he somehow, inadvertently, told Atemu to go? And what if he had? Was it really his fault?

Atemu had looked forward to going, Yugi knows that much. All those he had known and loved in his previous life had been there, on the other side, waiting for him – and then there were the memories too. Not just those from thousands of years ago, but from _during_ the thousands of years between. He had seemed so tired that Yugi hadn't dared to say anything, hadn't wanted to be selfish….

Now he wonders, hating himself for it. Maybe it had been just momentary – Atemu had just remembered who he was, that was enough to exhaust anyone. Maybe, if they had just given it some time instead of instantly rushing to Egypt….

But then again, maybe that wouldn't have meant anything. Maybe Atemu really had wanted nothing but to go – and maybe asking him really would've been selfish. Maybe telling him… would've really made him just want to go _more_.

His mind spinning from one horrible thought to another, Yugi backtracks back to the mall where he had bought the crappy laptop to house his phone's data, and after fetching the laptop bag from the storage closet, he heads back out – and eventually, towards the game shop. Grandpa wouldn't like it if he just up and vanished, he reasons with himself. And maybe… he has some things to settle, with his younger self.

The game shop is open for business when he makes it there, with Grandpa rearranging some merchandise – Duel Monsters merchandise mostly – near the front. "You're back sooner than I expected," the old man says at the sight of him.

"Kaiba was surprisingly reasonable," Yugi shrugs. Or maybe it was the fact that really, he hadn't asked _that_ much for the phone and Kaiba had really wanted it. It's pretty easy get people to do things for you when you have something they really want.

"So?" Grandpa asks, giving him a look glancing down at the laptop bag.

"So, you now know a millionaire," Yugi answers with a grin. "Also I bought a laptop," he adds with a shrug.

"Not a billionaire? What restraint – or did young Kaiba swindle the phone half free from you?" Sugoroku asks in mock astonishment.

"Well, I might also be a common shareholder of his corporation now," Yugi says with a shrug. "But never mind that. Is there any food?"

"Twenty-seven and you're still the same," his grandfather sighs with an eye roll. "There ought to be something in the fridge, do try and not eat me into bankruptcy. You might even leave a bit of a tip behind, considering that you seem to be the most successful breadwinner of the family, all of a sudden."

"Love you too, Gramps," Yugi grins and hurries up stairs, easing his boots off and leaving them behind as he heads to the kitchen which – to his slight relief – is empty. Setting the laptop bag leaning against the wall, he goes about getting himself a sandwich before snatching the morning's paper from the counter and going to sit down, to leaf through the pages to the advertisements section, to find if there were any flats for sale or rent.

Though, now that he's not so sure about his past, and what Atemu really might've wanted or thought… is it really the wisest thing to leave so quickly? Chewing on his sandwich thoughtfully he considers the implications of _really_ changing the future.

Giving Kaiba the tech doesn't really count because, well, that's technology and doesn't really affect him or past-Yugi on a personal level – which, he admits fully, is one hell of a self-important thought but true nonetheless. But telling his past self what happened to him, what will most likely happen to the kid….

God, a kid. That was what he had been, wasn't it? And hell, it isn't like Atemu had been that much older. How old had Atemu been when he died anyway? Something like eighteen? The hell had they known about life – or people – at that point. Not enough, that is for sure. They hadn't known enough about each other either – and, when Yugi looks at it from something like an objective standpoint… maybe they had _cared_ too much.

At least Yugi had. He had wanted not to be selfish so bad that he had been rather aggressively selfless – something he knows he's now grown out of, mostly. Seeing the Puzzle is bringing it back like a flashback, but it feels off and awkward now, like being wrapped in belts way too tight, with that old choker around his neck, constricting him. It's not the way he is anymore.

If it was him, in past-Yugi's boots, and if he knew… could he really be selfless and _not_ ask? As painful as rejection could be, as horrible as it would be to know that Atemu didn't want him, could he _really_ keep meekly quiet?

Hell no.

And really… it isn't his choice anyway. It's his past self's choice. The hell is he doing anyway, keeping things from _himself_?

Snorting to himself, Yugi leans his chin on his knuckles. It's always lovely to see Kaiba – things somehow fall into perspective after a nice verbal sparring match with his rival. Even if _this_ Kaiba wasn't _his_ Kaiba, it was so easy to fall into the old, familiar dynamic – and it's somehow always better than anything else at clearing Yugi's mind. Maybe because Kaiba is, there and here, wrapped in this aura of brutal rationalism.

And it isn't rational to be an idiot. Which, Yugi has to admit, he's so far been. A huge ass idiot, complete moron with, as Grandpa had said, his head up in his ass.

But still. He needs his own flat. If not for his own peace of mind, then for peace of his sleeping habits. Seriously, the quiet had been unnerving him all night – not to mention the fact that living under Grandpa's watchful eyes would make his living… awkward.

He's gone back to eying the ads for free flats, when his past self wanders into the room. "You're back," the younger version of him says, a bit hesitant. "Um. How did it go with Kaiba?"

"It went fine," Yugi assures and, after a knee jerk reaction and the instinct to look away, forces his eyes back to his younger self. Yep, the Puzzle is there, plainly obvious and impossible to miss, in its chain around his past self's neck. Yugi has almost forgotten how _big_ the thing was – though maybe it's just that his past self is so small.

For the first time, he wonders what the material it's made of actually is. What do you call a substance made from people's bodies and souls? Not gold, definitely, even if it gleams like it.

"Um…?" his past self asks confusedly as his hand comes up to cradle the inverted pyramid.

Yugi smiles. Now that he's not avoiding glimpses of the Puzzle, it doesn't look _that_ bad actually. It still twists him somewhere in his chest – feels a bit like being stabbed or electrocuted, really – but… it's not that bad.

"I'm looking for flats. What do you think, ofuro or no?" He says it more to break the odd tension that's come over his younger self.

His younger self blinks and then his eyes widen. "Flats? You're going to…?"

"Well, I can't stay here. It's a bit weird," Yugi shrugs. "I've gotten used to living by myself, and I kind of want my personal space back."

"But…" his younger self bites his lower lip, looking conflicted and uneasy. "You should stay here – with… with us," he says, looking down.

Yugi frowns a bit at that, looking at the teen. "It's nothing personal," he says after a moment. "But I really haven't lived with anyone in a long while and I don't think I'd know how to start now."

"You could learn?" his younger self suggests and then sighs, falling to sit on the seat across Yugi. "So are you a billionaire now?" he asks with a pout.

Yugi eyes him with disbelief. Yeah, the teen is actually pouting. "Just a millionaire," he says, shifting back a bit. Good _god_ , his past self's eyes are huge. "And stop that," he says quickly.

"Stop what?" past-Yugi asks, blinking – almost fluttering his eyelashes.

"That look – stop it!" Yugi says, looking away quickly, not sure if he ought to burst out laughing or run away. Had he really looked like that? He sure as hell couldn't pull that look off anymore, but _geez_. Puppies had nothing on his past self.

"What look?" his past self asks, utterly baffled, and helplessly Yugi starts to laugh – only managing to make his younger self pout harder. "What is it?" the teen asks, half out of frustration and anger. "Stop laughing!"

"I can't help it – you look like a freaking kitten!" Yugi gasps out between laughs, wiping his eyes. "You could register that look as a device for mind control. Use it on Kaiba sometime; secretly he's really weak against looks like that."

"K-kitten?" his past self asks in objection. " _Kitten_?!"

"The cutest little kitty who ever lived," Yugi answers and then quickly ducks down as his past self grabs one of the four placemats from the table, chucking it at him. "Okay, okay," he quickly says, leaning as far back as he can. "I'm sorry! But you can't really blame me – you were pouting at me!"

His past self harrumphs, waving the second placemat at him threateningly while Yugi quickly leans down to get the one that had fallen to the floor. "Call me kitty again and I won't be responsible for my actions," the teen mutters, while Yugi – still chuckling a bit – puts the placemat back in its place.

"Something to remember later on, then," Yugi answers and then holds his hands up in surrender when his past self makes to grab another projectile. "Peace, already!"

The teen narrows his eyes, but puts the placemat down. "Do you really have to move out?" past-Yugi asks then. "There’s enough space, isn't there?"

 _'Not for my hobbies, there isn't,'_ Yugi muses and shakes his head. "I don't have to – I _want_ to. And it's not the matter of space… well, it is a bit," he admits. "I like having my own space. As much as I love Grandpa, this is his house, and it runs on his rules. And I have my own set of house rules, these days."

"Fine," the teen mutters, and looks dangerously like he's about to start pouting again.

"Listen, it doesn't mean I won't be around. And you can come visit, once I have the place," Yugi says quickly, to avoid another laugh attack. "And I'll be dropping by here, of course."

His past self looks up to him and then down, to the Puzzle. "Is it because…?" he trails away, frowning.

"No, it isn't," Yugi says, a bit awkward now – he had been acting like an ass before. How to repair that…? "Is he listening in?" he asks, considering his options, wondering. If Atemu took control now, could he talk to him with a straight face, without breaking down?

Past-Yugi nods, oddly meek.

"It's okay," Yugi says, wincing a bit guiltily and then, in fit of madness, decides to reach over. "I'm sorry if I've been awkward, I didn't mean to put you two off –"

Wave of vertigo hits him the moment his fingertips touch the Puzzle, and he can see the Millennium Item lighting up in magical glow – just as darkness starts eating at the edges of his vision. The last thing he hears is past-Yugi's gasp, before the table's surface suddenly comes up and everything goes dark.


	12. Expectations

The spirit of the Puzzle very nearly loses his footing in the vast expanse that is the so called entrance hall of his soul. Around him, the maze of the Puzzle is in the throes of what almost looks like an earthquake – except that is impossible, the Puzzle is never affected by anything like that. The only thing that comes close is when some of the Puzzle's strange defences are triggered or a trap is sprung, but this… nothing this strong.

"Yugi!" the spirit cries out, at the sudden flood of panic coming from his partner – and then a wave of dizziness hits him, making him crash to his knees on the stone floor. Groaning he grabs a hold of his head, feeling like something in him is ripping apart, like he needs to physically hold himself intact and then –

Something shifts with a great groan, but it doesn't come from the maze, but outside it. Through the waves of confusion and dizziness, the spirit looks up and his eyes widen in horror as he realises that the sound and the quaking is coming from _outside_ his soul – from the corridor, from, _his partner's_ soul.

"My other self," he gasps and struggles to his knees, stumbling over the ancient stones and nearly crashing into the metal door and then through it, to the corridor – except…

It's not a corridor anymore. No, it's a room – a triangular room with a dark floor and no ceiling, with three walls, all of them different – and _three doors_. Two of them the spirit knows. There is his own door, at which he stands – dark metal, covered in fractures like veins and adorned with the Eye of Horus. Then there is the door to his partner's soul room, wood painted light blue – thrown wide open like always, and so very familiar. But then… there is the third door.

It's wood, like his partner's – but painted completely blood red. It is also firmly shut.

"Partner!" the spirit calls, uneasy with the sudden silence, and for a moment he fears – what if there is no answer? Something's different, so very different. What if he's somehow cut off from his partner, what is this third door would change their dynamics, what if –

"I'm here!" Yugi's voice comes through the open, light blue door and then his partner rushes out, eyes wide and alert – maybe a bit scared – but he's there and he's alright, and it takes the spirit all his restraint not to gather his partner in his arms and hide him away somewhere where he'd be safe and sound.

"Are you alright, my other… self…" Yugi trails away, stopping as he sees the triangular new shape of what had before been a corridor – and the third door. "Oh my god," the spirit's partner whispers, his eyes widening. "What –"

Before he can finish whatever he is about to say, the third door opens – and Yugi's future self steps out, his posture a bit stiff and his eyes narrowed with consternation. His eyes widen a bit at the sight of Yugi and the spirit, but – for the first time – he doesn't look away. "Yeah," the man says, awkward and uneasy. "That was not the smartest idea I ever had."

"What did you do?" the spirit asks, horrified and fascinated all at once.

"I touched the Puzzle," the man says, glancing back at his own soul room and then firmly closing the deeply red door behind him, leaning against it. "I really should have known better."

"What… but…" the younger Yugi. "How?" he asks, confused. "Other people have touched the Puzzle but this has never happened before!"

"Well, none of those people solved the Puzzle themselves, now did they?" his elder version asks with an awkward shrug. "I did, though, so of course it was going to react to me."

"Of course," the spirit murmurs. "You, like the Yugi of this time, are the master of the Puzzle. The chosen one. The Puzzle senses that, and so it made… room for you," he trails away with a frown, looking thoughtfully at the elder Yugi who shrugs, looking down at the dark floor between them – but he doesn't seem anywhere near as uneasy as before.

"I-is this permanent?" the younger Yugi asks, looking up at the spirit.

"Probably not. Well, the change might be permanent, but once I cut the physical connection with the Puzzle, my door will probably vanish," the elder Yugi says, looking over his shoulder at the red door of his soul and grimacing.

"Oh," Yugi murmurs, looking at him and then up at the spirit, who is still eying the elder Yugi.

Though he's seen the man before, through Yugi's eyes and in his ghostly form, this time is different – because in one's soul, there is more to see than just what meets the eye. There is a certain aura that is surrounding all of them – Yugi is, as always, surrounded by the gentle glow of his kindness and gentleness. The spirit himself knows his aura doesn't show – it's too dark and is only visible in the pure light of Yugi's soul room. But the elder Yugi….

His aura is as red as the door to his soul room.

"So, uh…" the younger Yugi is the one to break the silence. "Now what?" he asks and then perks up a bit. "Can we see your soul room?" he asks his elder self.

There is a sound like rope snapping taunt, and suddenly the elder Yugi's door is covered in belts and chains, all without buckles or locks. The change is so sudden and so immediate that the spirit at first thinks that it's completely unintentional, instinctive in the same way as Yugi's open door is for him – but the look on the elder man's face disproves that.

"No, I don't think so," future-Yugi says, folding his arms as he leans against the restraints over his soul room. "There are things there you don't need to see. And things you shouldn't."

"Like what?" Yugi asks a bit plaintively.

"Ten years of active social life, for one," the man says with a faint smile and then looks up from Yugi – to the spirit, who very nearly takes a step back as he, for the first time, finds himself holding eye contact with the man. "And some things about _you_ , which isn't that safe to reveal just yet."

"What?" the spirit asks, startled. Then he realises. "You know my past. You know – "

"It's not the past that's the problem. It's your name," the future version of his partner says. 

"My name?" the spirit asks, his eyes widening. "You know my _name_?!"

The man hesitates, a complicated mixture of a smile and grimace on his face before he sighs and shakes his head. "Of course I know your name. I was there when you regained your memories – or a version of you did, anyway," he says and then lifts a hand before the spirit can ask. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?!" the younger Yugi demands to know.

"Because that name is the seal holding something back," the elder Yugi says and sighs again. "This is all sorts of wrong and I shouldn't be telling it like this, in the wrong order, but…. There is a _reason_ why your soul remains in the Puzzle," he says, aiming the words at the spirit who shivers a bit under his stare. "And there is a reason why you don't remember. Your name – it is the most powerful bit of magic this world has ever experienced, and your memories are the safe in which it's held."

"But…."

Future-Yugi shakes his head. "If I told you, it would unleash… things," he says, making a vague motion with his hands. "Things which you can't fight, without your memories. These things have to happen in the right order. So I can't tell you."

The spirit swallows, looking at the younger Yugi who is looking back at him. They had both known that there was something very special about his memories, but his _name_ too? Or maybe especially his name. "This something. What is it?" he asks with a frown.

"Something bad," future-Yugi says. "I can't say the name. Saying the names of _bad_ things in this place, it being so close to the Puzzle's power isn't… safe."

"No. No it isn't," the spirit murmurs, frowning and then looks up. "You're… not uneasy with me anymore."

"Oh, you have no idea. It's taking every ounce of my concentration not to run for the hills right now," the elder Yugi sighs, rolling his eyes. "But Grandpa gave me something to think about and I've decided to stop being a coward about this."

The spirit frowns at that, eying the man. "Does that mean that you're willing to tell us what has been bothering you?" he asks, maybe a bit more cuttingly than he means to. As much as he wants to know his past, his name, the treatment he has been getting – the treatment his poor partner has been enduring – is a more immediate problem. Even now the man admits that it's hard to be here – and even now his eyes, although steady, are filled with silent hurt.

It is frustrating and the spirit is getting tired of being scared of the future, of things that haven't happened yet.

The man doesn't answer, though; he just frowns at the floor and avoids his eye. "My other self," the present-Yugi murmurs, but the spirit has had enough. Future-Yugi has decided to stop being a coward, good, because the spirit has decided to stop being soft about this.

"We have the right to know what will happen!" he snaps at the man, taking a step closer. Future-Yugi is taller than him and even in the soul room where size is somewhat relative he only reaches the man's chin, but the spirit would be damned if that would stop him from grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt and shaking the words out of him. "What will happen to us? What happened to you? Tell us!"

"I'm still not sure if it's the safest thing to –" the man starts to object and the spirit, sick of that excuse, takes hold of the front of his shirt and pushes him against the door.

"We have the right to know!" he yells at the man, ignoring the present-Yugi's cautious touch at his shoulder. "Tell us! You have to!"

The man looks surprised at first – not by the words, but the proximity, or maybe the way the spirit had pushed him. Then something changes about the man and the awkwardness _evaporates_. Suddenly the man's eyes are hard. "I… _have_ to?" he asks softly, his voice very low.

"Yes," the spirit hisses back and slams him against the door again, shaking the younger Yugi's insistent touch from his shoulder. "As one belonging to the Puzzle, even this space is my dominion and I am not letting you out of here before you tell us the truth –"

The man in his grasp moves then, one hand coming up and grabbing the hand holding his shirt, twisting it painfully and forcing the spirit to release him. Before the spirit of the Puzzle can even think of trying to stop him, the man has somehow shifted from the door and twisted the spirit's hand behind his back – and then it's the spirit against the door, his face very nearly slammed into the belts and chains holding the blood red door shut.

"I have to tell you, _do I_?" the future version of the spirit's partner speaks low and threatening over the present-Yugi's horrified gasp. "Fine. I'll tell you what happened. _You left_."

"What?" the spirit grunts out and then winces as his hand is wrenched so that his wrist is against the middle of his back.

"You left, you moved on, you went to the afterlife," future-Yugi very nearly growls and then, reinforcing each word with a painful twist of his hand, he continues, "And. You. Left. Me. _Behind_."

"Stop it!" it's the present Yugi this time, and the spirit can feel his presence there, close – at future-Yugi's back, pulling at him. "You're hurting him! Stop it!"

The spirit is released as suddenly and violently as he had been captured, and only by grabbing a hasty hold of the belts in front of him he keeps himself on his feet. His wrist is hurting and he can't help but clutch the belts tightly and for a moment he very nearly doesn't dare to look behind him, at the two Yugis.

When he does, future-Yugi is not looking at him at all – instead the man is glaring cold fury at the door to the spirit's soul room – at the Eye of Horus that stares back, unforgiving.

"When you get your memories back," the man says, his voice still low and somehow powerful, the bloody aura around him pulsing with fury. "And all is said and done, there will be a ceremony to decide your fate. Two choices. One: you stay in this world and with your… partner. Or two: you move on to join those you knew in your life thousands of years back."

"I… I chose to go?" the spirit whispers, first staring at the stiff line of the man's neck and then turning his horrified eyes to _his_ Yugi, who is staring back with equal horror. "Why would I –?"

Future-Yugi lets out an angry, strangled noise and then suddenly vanishes in a curl of dark red mist, withdrawing from the connection of souls.  Before either Yugi or the spirit can react, the third door in their soul's connection is torn away as, in the outside world, future-Yugi breaks the physical connection he has with the Puzzle.

"My… my other self," the younger – the only – Yugi whispers as the spirit, with no belts or door to take support from, slides to the floor.

"Partner," the spirit whispers, his hands shaking a bit as he looks over his shoulder at the one who's body he shares, who's soul he knows as well as he knows his own. " _Partner_ ," he says again, his voice oddly feeble and completely inadequate to express what he needs to be saying, conveying – that he would never, that he doesn't want to, that he can't –

But Yugi knows anyway, because suddenly he's there, at the spirit's back, throwing his arms tightly around him. As the spirit draws a shuddering breath, future-Yugi's words still echoing in his ears like some sort of death knell, his partner hugs him tightly, holding him together.


	13. Trouble Lurking

In the time it takes for the spirit of the Puzzle to calm down and Yugi finally feel somewhat safe with leaving the Puzzle, his future self is long gone. Still shaken by his future self's sudden violence, it takes Yugi a moment to realise that not only is the man gone, but so is the bag he had seen before – and when he finally manages to get to his feet and out of the kitchen, he finds that the man's boots are gone as well.

"G-Grandpa?" he calls, reaching the stairs. "Did my future self leave?"

His grandfather doesn't answer immediately but instead walks to the bottom of the stairs, to look up at him. "Yeah, took off like the devil was after him, wouldn't even say goodbye," Sugoroku says, looking worried. "What happened?"

Yugi shakes his head, sliding to sit on the stairs, feeling shaken and miserable and so hopelessly confused – and somehow it's worse now that he knows the source of his future self's worries. What the man had done, though – to the _spirit_ too! Future-Yugi is what Yugi will become in the future and that reaction….

"Yugi?" Sugoroku asks with worry and with shock Yugi realises that there are tears trailing down his cheeks. Before he can make to wipe them away, his grandfather is coming up the stairs and reaching for him. "Yugi, what happened?"

"I… I don't know?" Yugi admits with a sniffle. "M-my future self touched the Puzzle and then he was inside – in the place where my and the spirit's hearts connect, his soul room was there too and –" he chokes on the words.

The blood red door, covered in belts, and his other self – _both of them_. They had been so angry, first the spirit of the Puzzle – and yeah, Yugi has to admit that he had been too, for a moment, because once more it had seemed like future-Yugi wouldn't tell them anything – but then he had and _the way_ he had said it too! And the man had laid hands on the spirit too, pushed him against the door – and despite the fact that the man obviously has the physical power, how could he?

The spirit is still shaken very nearly wordless by it!

"There, there," Sugoroku says, sitting down on the step beside him and wrapping his arms around Yugi as the teen chokes back his confused sobs. "It's alright. Now come on, tell me what happened, everything."

Yugi tells him, between sniffles and gasps, until the whole story is more or less out – everything from the creepily red door to the way his future self had just left. Grandpa listens to his shuddering words quietly, just rubbing one warm palm up and down Yugi's back until the whole story is out.

"I see," is what the old man says, once Yugi is out of words. "And before he left, the spirit asked him why he would choose to go, huh? Well that would explain why your future self took off like he did."

"It would? It does?" Yugi asks confusedly, looking up while wiping his face.

His grandfather hesitates and then sighs. "I talked to him about this before, and he told me what happened to him – more or less anyway. And I raised some points about the whole ordeal I thought he might've missed," Sugoroku admits. "He's spent the last ten years or so thinking one thing of those events – and hating himself and the situation for it, no doubt. Now he's found something else, and he realises it's much worse than he ever thought it was."

"Worse?" Yugi asks with shock. "The spirit that was with him, his other self, chose to leave him – how could it be worse?"

"Because yours expressed disbelief at the thought – because yours _wouldn't_ ," his grandfather says grimly. "One of the things your future self told me is that when the ceremony was coming up, they didn't really talk about it and he didn't want to be selfish so he told _his_ spirit that he'd be fine with him leaving, that he'd be okay. Do you see?"

Yugi shakes his head, confused.

Sugoroku smiles sadly. "It might've not happened like that, and I think there are other factors that shaped the situation, but… I think right now your future self thinks that he actually, without meaning to, persuaded the spirit that was with him… to leave him."

"What?" Yugi whispers, his eyes widening while in the Puzzle, the spirit perks up in shock.

"They didn't talk about it –didn't dare to, didn't want to risk hearing the wrong thing from each other. I bet instead they sidled along the subject until the actual importance blurred away in their own cautiousness and so they never actually managed to express to each other what they really wanted," Sugoroku says. "And in that total failure of communication, they made a mistake. Your future self especially."

"But…" Yugi murmurs and then his eyes widen. "Never told his spirit he wanted him to stay and instead said that he'd be fine with him leaving," he murmurs, and looks at his knees with shock.

His grandfather shrugs. "And the spirit, probably, took it as a gentle order to leave," he says and then looks down the stairs. "And so he did, leaving your future self behind."

 _'With ten years of regret, which he only now realises is all his fault,'_ Yugi thinks with horror. _'No wonder….'_

 _'Partner,'_ the spirit thinks urgently, but Yugi is already standing up.

"Grandpa, did you see which way he went?" he asks hurriedly.

"Left of the shop, but… do you really think you can catch him?" Sugoroku asks with surprise, while Yugi dashes to get his shoes.

"I can try can't I?" Yugi asks, and then rushes down the stairs.

It had still been wrong of the future him to take out his frustration on the spirit the way he had, but maybe the spirit had had it coming – he had been egging the man on, after all, and probably just when the realisation was at its worst. Yugi will still confront him about it – but after wards, after he's caught the man.

Sadly, there is no sight of him on the street – the whole place is empty. A bit scared that the man had run the whole way, Yugi grits his teeth and then pushes himself to run faster than he has in many, many months – the way he hasn't had to since the spirit had entered his life. Inside, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle urges him on before pausing – and then appearing next to Yugi in the incorporeal ghostly form.

 _'Can't you do anything? Bakura can find people with his item, can't we --?'_ Yugi asks it in his mind, to save his breath for running.

"The Puzzle doesn't work that way, the dominion is different," the spirit answers with a frustrated frown. "But maybe…. He changed our soul rooms – we're different now and even if the connection is broken there is a piece of him and his power in _us_ now. Maybe we can use that."

 _'How?'_ Yugi asks, still keeping his eyes ahead and alert, hoping against hope that he'd see a familiar glimpse of black leather, of spiky hair, anything.

The spirit considers it silently for a moment while floating beside him. Then he looks up, touching his chest. "Feel him out," he says, clenching his fingers into a fist and twisting the ghostly fabric of his shirt. "We _are_ connected now. I can feel him – you should be able to too!"

Yugi doesn't argue with that – if anyone knows anything about these things, it's the spirit. Instead he concentrates onto the feel of his soul, his heart – the way he feels the connection to his other self and _there_ , somewhere beside it – or maybe behind it – there is another. It's vague and distant and fading fast, but he can _feel it._

"This way," Yugi says aloud and takes a sharp turn left, away from the street and to another, following the feeling of his heart almost blindly. It takes him from the street to an alleyway and from there to a dingy little back alley – and he very nearly shoots right past the alley, before the feeling inside him comes to a dead end.

 _'No!'_ Yugi gasps silently, thinking that he had lost the connection, that he'd never be able to find his future self or, worse yet, that he'd never see the man again. But then he hears a sound and turns and --

Future-Yugi stands there, leaning against the dirty brick wall with the laptop bag on the ground beside him. The man's eyes are wider than before as he stares at Yugi with a conflicted look about his face, obviously not having expected Yugi to follow.

For a split second Yugi doesn't know what to say, what to do – hell, he isn't entirely sure _why_ he has run after the man, only that he really needed to – but then the moment passes. "You really are a coward!" he accuses - and as the man flinches back Yugi steps closer and wraps his arms around his future self.

"Wha-" the man gasps, frozen stiff in the hold.

"When did you start running away again?" Yugi asks, frustrated and furious and so _sad_ that it's tearing at his heart. "I learned not to; when did you start again? Did you forget how useless it is? It never helped me any and I know that now – did you forget?"

"But I –" the man says, shifting – trying to get away – before choking on the words as Yugi squeezes his arms tighter around the man's waist.

"Stop running!" Yugi orders looking up, and feels an odd mental vertigo – because these are all the things he now wants to tell his _own_ past self, the one before the Puzzle, and yet he's telling them to the future version of him. "It doesn't help and you don't have to! And I know it must hurt, but we can't help you if you don't let us!"

For a long, awkward moment the man just stares at him, horrified and broken before his face crumbles. It takes all of Yugi's effort to keep them both standing when the man turns lax in his hold, and then he's forced to ease them down to the dirty alley floor to stop the man from falling over and injuring himself.

He doesn't let go, though, and instead shifts so that he's sitting astride on top of the man's folded legs, wrapping his arms only tighter around the man as the future-version of him gasps hitching breaths – not crying, his eyes are almost disturbingly dry, but he's shaking even worse than the spirit had been before.

"I didn't… I didn't mean to…" the man chokes out between gasps and suddenly his arms come around Yugi's waist, squeezing him close as future-Yugi presses his face against the teen's chest, biting back whatever is trying to force itself out of the man's throat.

Yugi more senses than sees the spirit crouching down beside them, coming close. "Yugi," he whispers, and for the first time the name actually means them both, with no additions involved. It makes the man Yugi might've become – but isn't going to, he knows that now – squeeze the teen's waist all the harder, but his shoulders stop shaking and his breathing seems a bit easier, if still laboured.

"Sorry," the man murmurs and what he means is a bit hard to tell – but he relaxes his hold a bit, so maybe he means trying to strangle the breath out of Yugi.

"It's okay. Really," Yugi murmurs, leaning back a bit and looking at his future self. The man looks miserable in a way he hasn't since that first moment in the hospital, with a grimace of his own Yugi withdraws one hand from around the man's neck to wipe a thumb across his future self's cheek – even if future-Yugi isn't crying, he looks like he wants to. "It's okay," Yugi murmurs again, and then turns to look at the spirit, who has his arm around the future version of him, offering him whatever support he can.

The man in their combined hold draws a breath, and it catches in his throat for a moment. Then he lets out a feeble pathetic laugh and squeezes his eyes shut. "I ruined my life," he murmurs, bowing his head. "It… it was all me. I am the reason he –"

"Stop it," Yugi snaps, leaning to press his forehead against the man's, wishing he could just force the thoughts away from his head, to seal away the memories. "You're just making yourself feel worse and it's not helping anybody, so just stop it."

The man lets out the odd little laugh again, grinning almost painfully. "Yeah, you're definitely me," he murmurs and opens his eyes. The smile fades as the man lifts one hand, to touch Yugi's cheek in reflection of Yugi's own hand on his cheek. "Don't make my mistakes. It might seem noble at the time, but _god_ , selflessness doesn't pay off."

"I'll keep that in mind," Yugi murmurs, blinking as he suddenly realises where they are – and what they are doing. He's sitting in the man's _lap_ and they're more or less entwined together and… shouldn't that make him feel embarrassed? Awkward? Something? _Anything_?

"Does… does this mean you won't be running away anymore?" the spirit of the Puzzle asks awkwardly, and Yugi turns his eyes to him. The spirit is standing on his knees, holding as close to them as he dares in his ethereal state, and he seems worried, uncertain.

"Yeah. No more running," future-Yugi answers and turns his eyes in jerky movement to face the spirit. "I'm sorry," he says again. "About… everything."

"About slamming me into a door, too?" the spirit asks, trying to lighten the mood – though he also seems to take the words as a sign because he's quick to shift closer and press his forehead against both of theirs, his arms around both Yugis' shoulders.

"You had it coming," the man murmurs, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes and for a long while the three of them just hold each other and breathe while between them the Puzzle glows faintly.

 


	14. Hero

_'That's my boy,'_ Sugoroku thinks with satisfaction when his grandsons eventually come back, his Yugi leading future-Yugi by the hand. They both look a little worse for wear and Sugoroku's for a moment overcome by the urge to tuck them both in bed until they feel better, but he bites it back, facing the pair of them with his hands at his hips instead.

"So?" he asks, aiming the words more at the elder Yugi than the younger one. He's not sure if he's surprised to see the elder one duck his head in sheepish embarrassment – and it's the younger Yugi who answers.

"He's gonna be just fine," his grandson says, and then continues, as determined as before, to drag the elder version of himself through the game shop and then up the stairs and to the second floor. Sugoroku looks after them with fascination and then shakes his head, chuckling.

Irresistible force, meet immovable object. He probably shouldn't have been so surprised by the results – hopefulness tends to be more powerful than regret and his Yugi has a _lot_ of hope.

After a moment of consideration, Sugoroku goes to the door and locks it, pinning the "away for lunch" sign to the window before heading up the stairs to see what the two Yugis are doing – because as much as he believes in his grandson's power of changing things for the better, there is also the other grandson to think about and future-Yugi's proving to be one powder keg of emotion – and he _had_ slammed the spirit into a wall once already.

His worries are pretty much destroyed by the time he makes it to the living room where he finds his two – often foolish and yet sometimes so wise – grandsons sitting on the couch, more or less cuddling each other. Judging by the way his Yugi is almost sprawled on top of his own elder version, it is Yugi's way of pinning the man down and keeping him from escaping, but for once the elder Yugi doesn't seem to mind the proximity, not even when the Puzzle is pinned between them

"- oh come on!" the younger Yugi is saying. "I thought we were going to figure this out – why are you _still_ talking about moving out?"

"Well the reasons for it haven't exactly changed," the elder Yugi answers with a chuckle, staring up at the ceiling with oddly hazy look – disbelief and surprised happiness and yet sadness all mingled in one in his expression. "I still want my own space."

"But –!"

"But," the man amends. "Maybe I don't need to leave this exact moment. It takes a while to look for a flat anyway, and I want a good one."

"But you're _still_ leaving," Yugi objects, pouting at him – which, for some reason makes the man look away with a chortle. "And stop laughing!"

"Sorry, sorry. No more laughing," future-Yugi sniggers and shakes his head. "I'm not _leaving_ exactly. I'm just getting my own place. I'll still be around," he says then, lifting a hand and brushing his younger self's hair back with a smile. "Tell you, what; I'll even get an extra room so you can come by stay over whenever you want."

"Really?" Yugi asks with surprise and then narrows his eyes. "How much did you get from Kaiba?"

"Enough," the man grins.

As they chat, Sugoroku withdraws back into the corridor to listen with a smile, not wanting to break the sudden camaraderie between them. Trust Yugi to go from being at least a meter's worth of distance to not maintaining any distance at all, he muses while leaning against the wall, wondering what sort of rules of personal space his Yugis really lived by. If any.

"And… is everything alright, now?" the younger Yugi asks in the living room. "Are _you_ alright?"

"I will be, eventually – just give me time," the man answers with a sigh. "It's been many years and… it'll just take some more time."

"Okay," Sugoroku's younger grandson murmurs and for a moment the pair of them are quiet. Sugoroku is just about to turn and leave the hall and to leave them what probably will end up in an early afternoon nap, before his grandson talks again.

"The spirit wants to take control. Is that okay?"

"… yeah, of course," the elder Yugi says and there is a sound of shifting which makes Sugoroku take a cautious peek at the living room. His younger grandson is sitting up now, with a bit more space between him and future-Yugi.

Except, of course, it's not his grandson anymore. "I know I'm not him," the spirit says, looking away. "But for what it's worth… I am sorry too."

"You really don't need to be," future-Yugi sighs, closing his eyes for a moment before looking at the spirit. "Besides, you don't know what motivated him to listen to my inane blathering anyway. He knew himself – you don't. Not yet."

"But I will," the spirit murmurs, looking down. "Did I… did he… _change_ much, after he remembered?"

Future-Yugi thinks about it quietly for a moment before reaching a hand out and taking the spirit's hand into his. "Not where it mattered. He became… calmer maybe, once he remembered. Less confused and less angry. But in every other aspect he was exactly like he had been before," he assures, smiling faintly. "Memories or no, the person you are now is… who you are. And who you were."

"Oh," the spirit murmurs, looking down at their joined hands while Sugoroku smiles secretly and withdraws into the hall. "I have to admit, that is a relief to hear."

"Yeah, I bet," is the last thing Sugoroku hears as he heads back down the stairs, to leave his grandson - all incarnations of him – to talk in private. It seems that they've solved at least some of their differences, and it'll be good for them to just talk. And besides downstairs Sugoroku will be in the perfect position to stop them, if one or the other decides to throw a hissy-fit and take off.

 _'And to think it's my Yugi who's supposed to be the emotional teenager,'_ the old man thinks as he quickly re-opens the door and goes back to work – not that he expects that many customers yet, but maybe eventually. _'The older Yugi might have more years under his belt – but I'm not sure if those extra years have given him much wisdom. If anything, they've drained him of what he's had.'_

Yet another proof as to why it is probably better for Yugi if the spirit goes nowhere – left alone it seems he had been left singularly _unbalanced_ too and as much as Sugoroku hates to think of it about his own grandson… future-Yugi isn't quite right.

Well, not yet anyway. But maybe now that he and his past self had come to an understanding, now that he's actually talking to the spirit, maybe it would only be a matter of time.

The day goes by quietly without any more outbursts from the floor above, and Sugoroku even gets some customers – most of whom of course ask after Yugi, whether or not he'd be willing to duel them – and overall it's a good day. By the time Sugoroku closes up properly, though, he is seriously wondering about what to do with his grandsons in the future.

Future-Yugi is dead set on getting his own place and Sugoroku is _mostly_ fine with that. The man is certainly old enough to live by himself and he has the money to manage if his dealings with Kaiba had really left him a millionaire, not to mention a shareholder. The thing that bothers him is that he isn't so sure if it's good for his foolish grandsons for them to be separated so soon after they had resolved their issues. Granted, future-Yugi had said that he would take his time about it, _now_ , and that he'd get an extra room for his younger self but the fact remains.

Wondering about whether he could persuade the man to get a flat near the game shop, Sugoroku heads up to the house, changing his shoes to house slippers and then cautiously peeking into the living room to see if they're still there.

They are, now lying stretched along the couch - both of them fast asleep, with future-Yugi's nose buried in his younger self's golden fringe.

Grinning a bit at the sight, Sugoroku leans against the doorway and just watches them for a moment. It's hard to say if Yugi's really Yugi at the moment – with his face relaxed in sleep it might just as well be the spirit in control. Does the spirit actually need to sleep though?

Well. It doesn't matter who is in control, the old man decides. What matters is that, at last, all of them are comfortable with each other.

 _'Yup. Now, time to get some blackmail material,'_ the old man grins to himself and then goes to find his camera.

He's just done getting his fourth shot of the pair when the elder Yugi's eyes peek open and he glares at Sugoroku over the younger Yugi's head. "Any particular reason you're doing that, Grandpa?" the man grumbles.

"Oh, none what so ever," Sugoroku says cheerfully and snaps a fifth picture before tucking the camera beneath his arm. "So, everything okay now?" he asks.

"Hm," the younger man sighs and then tucks his head down, to hide his face in his younger self's hair. "It's all fine. Go away. I just got comfortable."

"Alrighty then. I'll just be in the kitchen, being quiet and waiting for the time to start dinner, seeing that's about the only thing I'm good for around here," Sugoroku says and heads out of the room while the elder Yugi grumbles wordlessly after him.

While putting the camera away and making a mental note to get the pictures developed as soon as possible, Sugoroku really has to reflect how weird life around his grandson could be – and how easy it was to get used to it.

Maybe it was the hair. A lot of people had criticized Sugoroku when he had "let" Yugi dye it for the first time, but Mutou family business was _Mutou family business_ and in the end people had gotten adjusted to the hair pretty quick. And after the hair, well, the other shocks seem just like a gradual procession. The belts, the leather; it could be worse and oddly enough they fit him. Spiritual possession? It happens.

Elder self from an alternate future? Well, it's Yugi – the kid commands _three ancient Egyptian gods in the form of cards_. After that, well, time travel isn't _that_ weird and the weird just seems the norm.

Shaking his head at their lives Sugoroku settles himself by the kitchen table and then reaches for the day's paper. It's open at the ads section – judging by the looks of it, future-Yugi had been checking ads for flats before his dash for freedom.

After a moment of consideration, Sugoroku starts going through the ads himself before getting a pen and starting to cross over the ones in bad neighbourhoods or with too low a price – never a good sign - and circling the ones that were maybe fitting. How many rooms would Yugi need? At least two bedrooms, if he wanted to make one for his younger self….

Tapping the pen idly against the paper, Sugoroku wonders how much money his elder grandson actually has – and how much is he willing to spend on his flat. Renting would be cheaper, but buying would be safer – and probably better long term. If he has the money, anyway. And one day, if he decides not to live in the place, he could rent the place out and thus get his money back eventually.

"Hm. I wonder if he wants an ofuro or not?" he murmurs thoughtfully.

 


	15. Give Up

"Partner, you really shouldn't," the spirit sighs, even while following Yugi as the teen cautiously sneaks across the corridor and towards the guest room door. "I am pretty sure he won't appreciate you barging in on him while he sleeps."

 _'Shh, my other self, he's able to hear you, you know, and you might wake him up!'_ Yugi answers with a thought, grinning. _'And he won't mind that much, I'm sure. I wouldn't. Much.'_

The spirit sighs, closing his eyes for a moment and shaking his head. Sure, the elder Yugi had been fine with them – all of one day since the incident in their soul rooms. The man no longer flinches away from the spirit and no longer avoids looking at the Puzzle and for the most part he seems to be getting more comfortable with them….

But, it'd be stupid to think that everything was _fine_. The elder Yugi had said it himself – it had been many _years_ for the man. It will take more time than a day for the man to really… move on, if it can be called that, considering that the man is in his own past and can't exactly leave things behind him _behind_.

And the spirit doubts very much that having Yugi jump him early in the morning would help things much.

 _'Oh, I'm not going to jump him. I'm just going to wake him up. Poke at him a bit maybe, I might not get another chance,'_ Yugi answers when the spirit conveys his thoughts to him. _'Stop being so worried other me. You've seen it yourself – the future me is a total softie when you get down to it.'_

 _'Yes, he was quite soft when he slammed me into a door,'_ the spirit sighs, though he has to admit the man probably _had_ gone soft on him. Considering the size difference and the obvious strength lining the man's form… it could've been worse.

 _'And there's that too,'_ Yugi agrees, his mischievousness fading a bit as he frowns. _'I want to talk to him about that. He shouldn't have done what he did and I don't like that he did. And we might not get another chance to talk to him properly about that either, since he's still looking for a new place….'_

The spirit doesn't answer, not quite sure what to say. He hadn't liked it much either – but for different reasons than those Yugi had. He had been turning the incident over in his head, especially once Yugi's future self had eased up a bit and the more he thinks about it less he likes it.

Not the act itself, exactly. But that it was a version of Yugi who had committed it. Because one, it is _Yugi_ and Yugi literally wouldn't hurt a fly – so to have a version of him not just capable but willing to do something like that just grates at the spirit. And secondly – the move had been efficient, swift and capable. Practiced. The man had known exactly what to do and how to do it – how to, with minimal effort, incapacitate another person.

And while he has to admit that the idea that future Yugi's counterpart had grown strong enough to defend himself like that relieves him… the spirit still doesn't like it. Because it implies a _need_ to learn. The more the spirit thinks about it, the better he remembers his chaotic first few months with Yugi – and the harsh treatment Yugi had been getting at the hands of his school mates, before the spirit, and to a lesser extent Jonouchi and Honda, had put an end to it.

Had that treatment… resumed, after the elder Yugi's companion had left him?

Yugi's opening the door now, so the spirit pushes the thought away and instead follows his partner into the guest room. It is, when compared to Yugi's lively and often cluttered room, rather spartan – the small table in the corner is empty, the floor is clear and there are no posters on the walls. It makes the spirit wonder what sort of place the future version of his partner lived in in the future.

Then he turns his eyes to the man himself and lifts his eyebrows a bit. _'Well, some things don't change,'_ he muses while Yugi throws him a look that's half a grin and half a glare. The future version of Yugi is lying sprawled all across the bed the exact same way Yugi ends up sprawling – taking so much space that he's on the verge of spilling out of the bed. The only difference being that while Yugi usually sleeps on his back, his future version's sleeping on his stomach, with one hand under the pillow and his face almost completely covered in his golden bangs.

 _'He looks younger when he sleeps,'_ Yugi muses silently, crouching down beside the bed and, very, very cautiously, brushing aside some of the man's hair. The spirit tilts his head a bit to see the elder Yugi's face better and has to agree.

 _'But then again, you both look younger than you are,'_ he says thoughtfully. At seventeen Yugi looks like he's fourteen and at twenty seven his elder version looks like he's barely twenty – though maybe most of that was due to the height of the two.

 _'Hello, pot, I'm kettle and you're black,'_ Yugi answers with a snort. _'No, scratch that, you're a_ black hole _. A several thousands of years old black hole.'_

 _'I'm a dead spirit, what's your excuse?'_ the spirit asks with amusement, and then looks down as Yugi looks away and a twinge of something like pain sparks between them.

 _'Don't talk like that about yourself. You're not…'_ Yugi trails away and the spirit smiles faintly, shaking his head at his partner. It's not like they can change the facts – though one can't accuse Yugi of not trying.

 _'I thought you were going to poke him,'_ the spirit says, folding his arms as he stands behind his partner.

 _'Yes. Hm,'_ Yugi considers it, turning to the sleeping man and inching a bit closer, resting his chin on the edge of the mattress. He doesn't, in fact, poke the man and just watches his sleeping face – just as the spirit does.

When the elder Yugi's face is relaxed in sleep, he looks more like his younger self does. And yet different somehow too, the spirit thinks and after a moment decides that it's strange to see the man without the ankh hoops in his ears.

 _'Do you think his spirit would've stayed if…'_ Yugi trails away, frowning and then shakes his head. _'No, never mind.'_

The spirit lifts a single eyebrow. _'Would he have stayed if your future self had asked him?'_ He finishes the question – which might just as well be would the spirit stay if Yugi asked. Right now the spirit would, no doubt about it, but… _'I don't know. That spirit had three thousand year old memories that I don't, he had his name and answers for questions I can't even ask properly right now. Maybe he would've. But maybe he had other motivations that we don't know about.'_

Like an old life and loved ones in the afterlife. He had a life once – it isn't that big of a stretch to think that he might've had a family….

Yugi sighs and doesn't say anything for a while, and they just look at the sleeping man who, right now, seems to be the source of all their problems. When the silence is finally broken, is by neither the spirit nor by Yugi – but by the future version of Yugi, who frowns in his sleep, shifts where he lies and then makes a low groan deep in his throat.

For some reason the sound of it makes shivers run up the spirit's spine.

If it has the same effect on Yugi, the teen doesn't show it. "Wakey wakey," the spirit's partner murmurs, reaching out to poke the man's cheek. His elder self frowns and makes another low sound before, at Yugi's third poke, he turns his head and –

"Hey!" Yugi gasps as his finger is suddenly trapped between the man's teeth, and the future Yugi's eyes snap open, first with surprise and then with horror. There's a frozen moment as the two stare at each other, Yugi looking outraged and his future self for some reason growing pale as the spirit stares at the both of them.

Finally, very carefully, the man releases Yugi's index finger. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" the man asks gruffly while Yugi quickly withdraws his hand, rubbing at the bitten digit.

"I was _trying_ to wake you up. Won't do that again if you bite everyone who wakes you," Yugi grumble, and the spirit smothers the urge to laugh. " _Do you_ bite everyone who wakes you?" his partner asks suspiciously. "That seems like horrible manners."

"Not really, but then usually people don't shove things in my face without being fully aware of the consequences," the elder Yugi groans before noticing the spirit. Somehow he manages to actually go even paler – before, in a rush of colour, going completely red.

"Hi?" the spirit offers awkwardly, waving a hand.

"Oh god," the man groans, lifting the pillow from beneath his head and then tucking his head beneath it, securing it in place with both his arms. "Both of you go away, _please_."

"And let you get away with _biting me_?" Yugi objects and then leans back quickly as the man makes a blind swipe at his head.

"I'll do a lot worse than bite you if you don't leave me alone this second," the future Yugi grumbles, muffled through the pillow.

"Like what, wave at the air threateningly," Yugi asks and then jumps up to his feet before sitting on the bed's edge. "Besides there’s stuff I want to talk about with you," he adds before trying to drag the pillow away from the man's head.

"And you couldn't think of a better time than _this_?" the man asks, clutching onto the pillow harder. "Stop that!"

"No, you stop it," Yugi says, tugging at the pillow for a moment longer before looking up at the spirit. "Help me out here."

"Ah, no, partner, thank you oh so much," the spirit snorts, taking a step back and holding his hands up in refusal. "But I'd rather stay out of it, if it's alright with you."

"Listen to the ancient Egyptian, he's smart," older Yugi grumbles, pointing a finger at the spirit.

"Argh, fine! But I still wanna talk," Yugi says, nudging at the man's shoulders. "Because if you buy a house today you're probably going to do something stupid like move right in and then I'll never get the chance."

"It's not that easy, besides I promised to get you your own room, didn't I?" the man objects before lifting his head from under the pillow with a sigh. "So what do you want to talk about? And it better be damn good to justify waking me up this early."

"Well. A lot of stuff, actually," Yugi says, the permission turning him awkward – most likely because he probably has lots of things he wants to talk about. The spirit knows he does – only he doesn't know how to ask. And maybe neither does Yugi.

"Out with it already," Yugi's older version orders with a disgruntled frown – and he's still rather flushed, though that might be because of the time spent under the pillow.

"That thing, with our soul rooms," Yugi starts slowly, thoughtfully, touching the Puzzle hanging from his neck. "I sort of skipped in and out the place in my sleep last night, and the place that was a corridor, it's still in the shape of the triangle room."

"And it is staying that way," the spirit agrees, thinking about it. He had tested the limits of the odd transformation cautiously, and it did seem a permanent change.

"And we can sort of feel you, now – just a bit. I mean, I can tell which way you are when I'm not nearby, that's it but even that's something," Yugi adds with a nod. "Can you do that?"

The elder, alternate version of Yugi frowns at them for a moment before sighing and resting his cheek against the pillow, closing his eyes. "Yeah, I can feel a connection. Pretty faint one, though, but I can probably use it to find you too, if I need to," he says. "But the effect of the Millennium items isn't permanent. It'll probably stay that way for months, maybe a year, but unless I touch the Puzzle again sometime before that, your soul rooms will probably revert to the same state as they were before."

"Really? How do you know that?" The spirit asks with fascination. Up until now he's thought that the effect of the shadow powers is permanent.

"I saw it happen to a lot of people you and Bakura's other self – plus Marik's other self – dealt with using magic. They all eventually… recovered, though most worse for wear," the man says, peeking one eye open. "The Ishtar's explained that it's because what the Millennium Items do affects the soul – but the soul changes, so eventually it sort of… repairs itself. Or shakes off the alien influence. Something like that."

"Oh," the spirit murmurs and scowls, thinking back to Yugi's old bullies and other people that had harmed his partner, the people he had, as the older Yugi said, dealt with. Had all of them recovered after his… the other spirit's departure? What the spirit had done, he had done in Yugi's body, under Yugi's name – placing the responsibility, ultimately, on Yugi's shoulders. "The… Ushio and the others, did they --?"

"By the time they did, I wasn't really around that much so if they remembered me – or you – I never heard of it," the older Yugi says, looking at him from the corner of his eye and then smiling. "It was fine. The most trouble we had was with the people the other Bakura had… well. You know the powers of the Ring. There were a lot of very confused people coming out of comas around that time."

"I bet," the spirit murmurs, still frowning even if slightly relieved. But if Yugi's old bullies hadn't come after the man, then why….

"When we were there, in the triangle room… you hurt the other me," Yugi says, like reading the spirit's mind – and maybe he is too. "Why… how could you…" the teen trails away, frowning. "I couldn't – _I wouldn't._ Why did you? How could you?"

"You mean how come I can do that sort of thing, while just thinking about it makes you uncomfortable?" the man asks and with a sigh shifts where he lies so that he's propped up by his elbows. "You won't grow up to be violent, so you can stop worrying about that. Chances are you won't grow up to be anything like me," he says then, nudging at Yugi's side sympathetically.

"But you _are_? Violent, that is?" Yugi asks in discomfort.

"Not… exactly. I just don't let myself be pushed around anymore, and anyone who tries it will get what's coming to them," the man says, with a spark of the same strength the spirit had seen – just before his hand had been twisted behind his back – in the man's eyes. "I'm not beyond hurting people, I'll admit as much. But I won't hurt anyone not asking for it," he adds and points a finger at the spirit. "And grabbing me by the shirt front _is_ asking for it."

The spirit blinks and then nods, fully willing to agree to that and to not doing it again – though why does it seem like there's more to it than the man's actually saying?

"Oh," Yugi murmurs and looks at his knees. "And you won't again?"

"Keep waking me like this and I _just might_ ," the man growls and then pushes Yugi off the bed, nearly sending the teen to the floor. "Now get the hell out of here. I have some more Zs to catch before we get going today."

"Fine," Yugi harrumphs, dusting off his pyjama bottoms while the elder version of him burrows back beneath the duvet. "You're going to go look at the houses today, right? I'm coming too. I want to see where you might move."

"Fine, fine, just get out," the man mutters, waving a hand and with another harrumph Yugi makes his way to the door way. The spirit hesitates for a moment before following him. Behind him he can hear the older Yugi shift in the bed, probably rolling to his side. The sound the man makes is almost pained, when the door closes.

"Do I let people push me around?" Yugi asks the spirit as they head back to the teen's room. "I don't, do I?"

"You do a bit, but I don't," the spirit grins, throwing an arm around his partner's shoulder and deciding to put aside the worries and possibilities and the whys behind the differences between the two Yugis. "So, really, nobody can really push you around either."

"Well, that makes me feel so much better about myself," his partner grumbles.

 


	16. Tower

 

"I think this is the place," Sugoroku says while Yugi peers at the numbers on the sides of buildings. "That one on the right, I think that's the one."

"Yeah, it looks about right," Yugi murmurs, eying the building. It's the third one he'd be looking at – and the two previous ones hadn't made any good impressions on him, the first one having mould growing in the closets and the second one having a pitifully weak ceiling. Though they had been closer to the city centre and relatively cheap for the location, Yugi had decided it wasn't worth it to buy them considering that he'd have to start renovating them before moving in.

This third one is bit further away from the city centre than he would've liked, but the specifics in the ad hadn't sounded bad. It was sizeable, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms – plus when he had called the owner of the flat, the guy had told him some nice things about sound proofing, making Yugi decide that it was worth looking at.

"It looks old," Yugi's younger self says from the back seat, peering out through the open window. "Older than the other places. How much is this one?"

"A bit expensive, but that's only a good sign – and this place is bigger than the others," Yugi answers and unbuckles his seatbelt as Sugoroku parks the car in front of the building. Taking a moment to grab the notebook he had borrowed from his younger self, Yugi opens the door and stands up, looking the street up and down.

Well, there'd be parking space – and the building had an under-ground garage too, according to the owner. Topmost floor though… he isn't too sure about that. His previous flat was in the lowest floor and he had gotten used to the freedom of not having to worry about bothering those in the flats below him. Plus it adds to the price for one – because of the view over most of Domino.

But then again, there'd be no one living above him to worry about.

"You must be Minamoto Yuto?" a middle aged man coming towards them from the building entrance asks. "I'm Oshiro Seiji, the owner."

They bow to each other and while Yugi's younger self and his grandfather come out of the car, Yugi looks at the front of the building. "How long has the flat been empty?" he asks thoughtfully.

"It was rented by a young couple for a year – they moved out a couple months back, actually, after which I decided to sell the place. Of course, not before doing a bit of renovating," Oshiro says and motions Yugi and the others to follow. "Come right this way."

The building hallway and stairwell is clean and the elevator runs smoothly all the way to the seventh floor, all of which Yugi makes a mental note off before Oshiro leads them into the flat itself. The front hall is a bit crowded, but not too badly and there are lines of closets with old-fashioned sliding doors on each side which Yugi has to admit isn't a bad thing.

Then he sees the vast expense that is the living room and kitchen area. "Whoa," he murmurs.

It's divided in two sections. From the front hall the first section they enter is the lower living room area, with enormous ceiling-to-floor windows which look over the city. Then, to the side, four steps lead up to the kitchen area, separated from the living room area by a sort of counter. The floor of both was hard wood, and obviously very new.

"Oh wow. This place is _huge_ ," Yugi's past self murmurs, while the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle manifests beside him to give the place a look as well.

"I concur," Atemu says, sounding impressed while peering out of the window.

"Yes, as you can see, being one of the three loft flats, this place has its own peculiar floor planning," Oshiro says, as he walks across the living room. "The first bedroom is just on your right, sharing the southern view of the living room – it is the master bedroom and has its own bathroom. The three other bedrooms are just this way…."

Oshiro leads them up to the kitchen _landing_ and from there they find a corridor leading to the left, lined with doors to not just the three other bedrooms, but a cleaning closet and an enormous wardrobe – and at the end of the corridor there is the second, the main, bathroom. It’s spacious – and obviously recently touched up – with a rather large modern ofuro and two different taps, one for the sink and other for the ofuro.

"Okay. So far I'm impressed," Yugi admits.

"And this little guy's a good sign, too," Sugoroku says, grunting a bit while crouching down to pick up a spider, scuttling about the floor.

"How is a bug a good sign?" Yugi's younger self asks with confusion, while he and Atemu peer at the spider.

"It means that there's no mould here. These guys don't like damp places," the old man says, examining the spider with a smile. "And they keep other bugs in check."

"And they're generally awesome," Yugi agrees with a grin, having something of a kinship with spiderfolk in general. Which reminds him. "Now, I got some questions, if you don't mind?" he asks, turning to Oshiro.

"Go right ahead," the man says, seeming delighted by the fact that they hadn't freaked out at the spider.

"How's the ceiling?" Yugi asks, pointing upwards. Every room in the place has the same type of ceiling – looked like concrete painted white, but he needs to be sure. "How thick is it? How strong – can it take weight?"

"How do you mean?" the man asks, looking up with a frown.

"Say I wanted to put a hook on it. Or several. How much weight could I put on a hook?"

"Ah, that. Well…" Oshiro hums, peering upwards. "That depends what you're aiming to hang up."

Yugi shrugs. "This and that. A hammock, a hanging chair, a punching bag, whatever. Probably no more than a couple hundred kilos in total, all though…" he trailed away, considering some of his past experiences. "It would be nice if I could trust it up to two hundred and fifty."

"Ah, well, I think it can take it," Oshiro nods. "It's solid concrete throughout, so it's not weak. Though if you want to put up something heavier than that, I'd look into adding some support beams or pillars to make sure the weight doesn't cause any damage."

Yugi nods, satisfied. So far so good. "Okay. I think I'll have a look at that master bedroom now."

They talk a bit more about the specifics, the electricity outlets, the pipes, the heating and ventilation and so on and so on before Yugi has to admit, the house's starting to look like something he could deal with. The ceiling's better than in his precious flat, even, and he _really_ likes the flooring. Plus, the place is huge – has one bedroom more than he strictly needs, but that's not exactly a bad thing. And the living room is _awesome_.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to go any lower on your initial price?" Yugi asks only half seriously. The location isn't exactly ideal and it's the topmost floor too… but it is probably the best he can get so close to the city centre, without lowering his standards.

Oshiro shakes his head solemnly. "I'm afraid not, not after the renovation. Any lower and I'd be losing money," he says. "It's a bit steep, I’ve got to admit, but a man's got to make a profit somehow."

"Yeah," Yugi murmurs, thinking about it for a moment and then looking up at the living room ceiling, picturing the hooks and ropes and with that _view_ just outside too – "Yeah, okay," he says with a nod. "If you don't have any other buyer lined up, I'll take it."

"Uh. Just like that?" Oshiro asks.

"Yep."

"… You have a mortgage plan already?"

"Don't need one," Yugi shrugs and then grins. Being a millionaire will _never_ get old.

Of course, it's not quite as simple as shaking hands on it and sending a cheque in the mail. Instead they schedule an appointment at the bank to make the sale properly and shake on it before Oshiro locks the door and they head back down.

"So what are you _really_ going to hang on the ceiling?" Yugi's younger self asks curiously as they head back to the car, Atemu having retreated back to the Puzzle silently.

"Oh this and that," Yugi answers with a smile. Tables, benches, people… "I just want to have my options open for later," he shrugs.

"Well, now that you're all set to abandon us, how about we get something to eat?" Sugoroku says once they're all seated in the car, and before Yugi can open his mouth he quickly adds, "And the wealthiest one in the family gets to pay."

"Damn it," Yugi mutters. "Though, technically, I am not in the family, am I?"

"Nobody cares about technicalities," Grandpa answers calmly. "And you owe us anyway, since I drove you around –"

"Which I could've done myself, I do have a licence too you know…."

"Not listening to you. Now, where do you want to go eat?" Sugoroku asks.

Yugi rolls his eyes while pulling his seat belt on. "I thought you weren't listening to me?"

"Burger World!" his younger self says from the back, leaning in with a wide grin on his face. "I mean it's not like anyone here was ever going to suggest anything else, so let's go already. I am going to eat _everything_."

Yugi considers it. Eat everything. It has a ring to it. "I agree with mini-me. Let's go eat Burger World to bankruptcy."

"I don't think it works like that," Sugoroku snorts while directing the car out of the parking lot, shaking his head at them as he does.

While Grandpa drives, Yugi lets his smile fade as he looks outside. Soon he'd have his own place – and not just rented, but _his_. After that it would be getting furniture and the usual trappings, that would take a few days at most unless he let Grandpa and his younger self stall him – and he wouldn't. So he can look forward to leaving the Kame Game Shop in about a week, maybe less.

Thank god.

 _'Not that it's so bad now. Except…'_ Yugi smothers the urge to frown. He isn't sure if his younger self even realises what he is doing, really. Probably not. Atemu seems a bit more aware of it, a bit more awkward with it, but even he is warming up to the… sheer lack of anything resembling personal space between them. Which would be fine, if Yugi himself was their age – okay, maybe not exactly, but it would be better.

Except he's not their age, he's twenty-seven _–_ and the only people who had gotten _that_ close to him in the last ten years have been people he had taken to his bed. And worse yet… well if eleven years hadn't shaken him away from his somewhat foolish infatuation with Atemu, the way his younger self was throwing himself – and by connection _Atemu_ – at him is definitely not going to help on that account now.

All in all, the way his younger self – and Atemu – keep worming their way into his side is not doing anything good to his mental health.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Yugi takes a breath and then very determinately tries thinking about it. Or the fact that since their little talk in the goddamned alley way his younger self has taken it into himself to walk into the guestroom at odd times. Like early morning – when Yugi was half asleep and thus with his defences down – and of course Atemu is out of the Puzzle more often too and….

And it's messing with his head.

Well, who knows, maybe with time his younger self would settle down, but… probably not. Yugi himself wouldn't – and even if he did, that didn't change the fact that Atemu was there and closer all the time.

Best to get out as soon as he could, Yugi decides, while he has his sanity intact.

"So. Now that you're on the verge of getting your own place," Sugoroku says as he parks in the Burger World parking lot. "What's the next order of business? Furniture maybe?"

"Trip to a hardware store, actually," Yugi says with a shrug. Better get the ceiling hooks in before he got the furniture – less mess to clean up later and he could. "Also I might paint the place. White’s not my colour."

"And what is, black?" Yugi's younger self asks while releasing himself from his seat belt.

"Could be interesting, but ultimately it would make home décor a bit tricky," Yugi snorts and considers it. His flat back in future had had sort of beige walls, and it was a bit too neutral a colour for him. Considering the hard wood flooring, it wouldn't hurt to go for something strong. "Something vibrant," he murmurs thoughtfully. "Burgundy maybe, mixed with burnt sienna…."

"That sounds rather colourful," Sugoroku notes, turning off the engine.

"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Yugi says, smiling and unbuckles his seatbelt and then opening the door while his younger self practically throws himself out of the car. Together they turn to look at the Burger World building before sharing a look.

"Bet you I can eat more than you?" Yugi more suggests than dares.

"Are you sure? I mean, I am a male teenager – starved is my default setting," his younger self says and when Yugi just snorts at the words, he grins. "Well, if you're sure," his younger self grins, and then adds, "And loser has to do a favour for the winner."

"You're on," Yugi says and together they set out for the fast food restaurant, while their grandfather follows at a more sedate pace, shaking his head in exasperation.


	17. Seeking Solace

Yugi drums the table idly with his fingers while staring across it to the empty seat opposite him. His future-self usually sits there in the morning – but not that morning. The man had headed out early, according to Grandpa, to do some furniture shopping and whatnot, taking Sugoroku's car to do it with. Yugi's not entirely sure if he's annoyed about it or not – he is vaguely miffed maybe about not being included, but then again maybe it's not really any of his business. It's not like it's his house after all.

Except maybe a bit it is?

 _'Why does he have to move out anyway?'_ the young duellist muses with a sigh. The older version of him hadn't relented about that one bit, and Yugi knows what the man had been doing with his promises of Yugi having his own room – keeping him from finding a proper argument to raise against him. Not that it probably would have done much good, even if he had been able to come up with a good reason for the man to stay at the game shop. The future him was too stubborn.

But still, despite all the explanations of _needing his own space_ and _being used to being alone_ , Yugi doesn't get the hurry. It hadn't been that long, yet the future him is acting like he absolutely has to get away. Like it is somehow horrible to be at the house. Is it because of Yugi and the spirit? Had the man been lying when he had said that he was okay with it?

 _'Do you get it, my other self?'_ Yugi asks, glancing backwards to the spirit who is hovering by the window, peering out. _'It's not so bad here, is it?'_

The spirit considers it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "No, I don't get it," he answers, folding his arms and leaning his back against the window frame. "But I think it might be high time we admit that we simply are unable to understand the motivations of your future self."

"I think that's pretty much obvious," Yugi says out loud, turning in the chair and leaning his elbow on the backrest.

"Yes, maybe, but maybe not," the spirit says, turning his eyes to Yugi. "Even now you are getting agitated over the fact that you can't understand his motivations – that he _isn't_ like what you expect him to be. You know he is different, but you expect him to be the same as you are."

Yugi frowns a bit at that, first about to argue before he thinks about it a bit further. Does he expect his future self to be the same? No, but… maybe he does, a bit. The man _should_ be like what he knows himself to be like. He is Yugi's _future self_ after all, so the similarities should be obvious, shouldn't they? They should feel the same and think the same and yet….

But no, of course they wouldn't. Yugi himself is nothing like the boy he had been just a couple years back, after all, and he knows that. Put to stand next to his younger, more timid self from the time before the spirit, he wouldn't act or think anything like he had back then. And that is just two years. Ten years, plus all the things that had happened in those years….

"I still don't see why he's in such a hurry to get away," Yugi murmurs, resting his cheek on his arm.

"I think… I think he really does actually need the space," the spirit answers. "And I'm not sure if the shop or the two of us have that much to do with it – maybe in the grand scheme of things, but…. What I think he's after is just a space of his _own_."

Yugi frowns, not entirely sure what the spirit is after. "How do you mean?" he asks softly.

"This is your home – and the home he moved out of years ago in his time line. More than that, the time itself isn't his, it's yours and something that is the past to him," the spirit says, looking away. "If I were him, I would feel out of place and perhaps… unconnected. Everything here has its place, you have your room, Grandfather Sugoroku has his…."

"And he couldn't make the guest room his?" Yugi mutters, frowning because despite how much he dislikes it, he's starting to see the spirit's point.

"It's the guest room. Which makes him the guest and still disconnected," the spirit shrugs. "So instead he wants to make a place where he knows he will belong – because it's his."

The kitchen is quiet for a moment while Yugi considers that, staring at the floor. Maybe it all really does apply to the future-Yugi, but the way the spirit speaks… it's so knowing. Experienced, maybe. Then of course he would know all about feeling disconnected. Yugi has always tried his best to make the spirit feel included – he rarely if ever told the spirit no when he wanted to take over. But… that didn't mean that the spirit actually had a….

Finally, Yugi looks up at the spirit, who is looking outside again. "Do you feel like that too?"

The question seems to startle the spirit who turns to face him with a blink. "What?" he asks, confused.

"Do you feel like that too – like you need to make a place where you belong?" Yugi asks, frowning, thinking about it hard. Was that why the future-Yugi's spirit had left – because he had felt like he didn't belong? Because he had felt like his _space_ was in whereever the other spirit had gone to?

"No, of course not – I –" the spirit starts to say before stopping with a frown. Then he looks away again. "My _place_ is in the Puzzle," he says then. "Even if I wanted to leave I cannot."

Yugi's first instinct is to withdraw, just stop the conversation there and quickly change the subject to something that hurts less. But the future-Yugi's words are still deeply ingrained in his head – _don't make my mistakes_. And the biggest mistake which Yugi thinks his older self has ever made, was the lack of proper communication between him and his spirit.

Which probably had its roots in that very instinct Yugi himself has, to change the subject away from the painful one.

So he forces himself to think the words through, the whole thing. The spirit isn't looking at him, and though it sort of hurts, Yugi doesn't look away from him and instead considers him, his posture, and what he had said. Even if, he had said. Even if he wanted to leave.

"Also," the spirit says after a moment. "I think your future self might also need the space just to think things through. Everything has been a bit hectic around here."

"I guess that's true enough," Yugi sighs before leaning back and shifting in the chair, so that he's sitting the wrong way around with the backrest between his legs, now completely facing the spirit. "And I guess I'm being a bit stupid about it. It's just that I've gotten used to having you around, and he's… he's sort of same, you know?"

His companion blinks and then turns to face him. "The same?" he asks.

"Yeah. Another me, I mean," Yugi shrugs. "It feels wrong when he's away." He considers that and then has to amend, "Not the same way it feels wrong when I don't have the Puzzle – I don't actually feel the lack the same way. But it still feels like he _should_ be here. Because he's me, he should be _with_ me. Or… something."

He shrugs awkwardly, not really able to explain it properly. "And besides, once he moves out no matter what he says, he'll be _alone_ there," he says, grimacing. "Alone in that big house. I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Ah," the spirit says, blinking again and then looking down at the floor between them. "In that sense I suppose I feel the same," he finally admits. "But the fact is… he obviously doesn't feel like that."

Yugi harrumphs at that, folding his arms on top of the armrest and resting his chin on his wrist. _'I think he does, I think he feels exactly like that, but he's too damn bull-headed to admit it even to himself,'_ he thinks viciously, and then shoots a look at the spirit who chuckles quietly at that.

His future self is used to being alone – that is what the man has been saying constantly in the last couple of days. He's used to having his own space, used to being alone, used to managing alone. Used to. That's the problem, Yugi thinks. The bigger problem is that, despite how he dislikes it, he isn't sure if it's right to try and make the man get unadjusted to it.

Because as much as he wants the man to stick close, it's not exactly his choice. The future-Yugi obviously has his own opinions on the matter, and he's made them clear.

Sighing, Yugi buries his face in his arms for a moment before looking up again. "You know I don't want you to leave, right?" he says, making the spirit start a bit. "I don't want you to go anywhere," Yugi adds, holding the spirit's surprised eyes as long as he can before the embarrassment forces him to look away. "I mean… it's not bad, being like this… right?"

"… No. Of course it isn't," the spirit murmurs and after a moment pushes away from the window frame, coming closer – and when Yugi can't force himself to look up, the spirit crouches down before him, meeting his eyes from the lower angle with a smile. "I don't want to leave," he says, reaching out and resting one hand on top of Yugi's foot, fingers curling against the fabric of his trousers. "I want to know my past, I won't lie about that, and I can't promise that I won't be different once... if I do remember, but as things stand now, I want to stay."

Yugi frowns a bit at that – at the reminder that there are still so many things they don't know and that even if they swear to choose something now, it might mean nothing later. But he nods and shifts his foot a bit against the touch. "I suppose that's good enough," he sighs. "Just… promise me that once you do remember, we'll talk about it properly, okay? Let's not… _not_ talk, okay?"

"Yes," the spirit says with a smile and Yugi sighs again.

"Now, if only we could talk with that idiot of an older self of mine," he mutters, his shoulder slumping a bit. "He's still avoiding us, sort of. And he's not telling us stuff."

"Maybe, but it's getting better too. I think we ought to give him the space he needs, for now," the spirit says, standing up. "And in the meantime we have things to do as well."

"We do?" Yugi asks with surprise and disbelief. "Like what?"

"Like homework," the spirit says with a grin. "It's only so long until summer holidays will end and you haven't done any of your homework so far – and I am not doing it for you."

Yugi blinks with surprise at that and then sighs. "Well aren't you the party pooper," he sighs. He had completely forgotten everything about school and homework – the summer had been so mad and passed by so fast with BattleCity and everything. And it had sort of felt like it would never end, and that he'd never have to go back to the tedium of school.

"Well there's still time, right?" he asks pleadingly. "I can do it all later; there'll be plenty of chances."

"Nope, I am not standing for that," the spirit says and begins pushing him up. "You have time now and absolutely nothing to do – and you never know what might come up. Besides, the others probably have done their homework already and won't you feel like a fool if you're the only one going back with nothing done?"

Sighing Yugi lets himself be dragged to his feet and then pushed out of the kitchen. "Jonouchi's probably not done much of anything," he grumbles.

"Well that is not an example you should be taking," the spirit says cheerfully. "And do you really want your school year to start with Anzu scolding you for being lazy? If I remember it right she gave you a mean old lecture the last time."

"Oh, don't remind me," Yugi sighs, but the spirit has a point – and no, he doesn't want to be on the receiving end of Anzu's famous look of disapproval and disappointment. Being the world famous King of Games meant nothing to her, not when it came to Being Prepared for the Future – which, sadly, includes doing homework.

"I wonder what the others are doing anyway," Yugi murmurs as the spirit pushes him to sit by his desk, where all his school books wait in a brutally high pile. "It's been a few days."

"Probably the exact same thing you ought to be doing – their homework," the spirit says. "And probably recovering," he adds after a moment.

Yugi frowns a bit at that. Recovering – yeah. They all needed a bit of recuperation time after the BattleCity tournament. Jonouchi and Anzu especially, not to mention Ryou. Otogi has his dad's shop to look after, what remains of it anyway…. Yugi himself had needed a few days too – and he probably still would be thinking about the events of BattleCity, if his future self hadn't shown up out of the blue.

"No daydreaming," the spirit says from behind him, poking him in the back of the neck. "Work, partner. Those maths problems aren't going to solve themselves."

"Yes, yes," he sighs, reaching sadly for the nearest book.


	18. Dark

With a satisfied sigh, Yugi flopped down on the new couch that stood a bit askew in the middle of his living room. The people from the – rather numerous – furniture stores were finally out and all the furniture was in. He still needs to figure what he will put where, but for now he's just satisfied having it all _in_ the house.

The flat is starting to look up. The walls are still drying and he can't put anything to lean against them yet, but give it a few days and it'd be safe to put together the book shelves and whatnot. The ceiling's painted too, and he already has some of the lights in – and all of the hooks just where he wants them, four of them in the living room, more in the master bedroom and, just to be sure, in one of the extra bedrooms too. Later he'd do a bit of modification to the living room and master bedroom floors – not much, just enough so that he can add rings to the floor and of course remove them too, would be a bit awkward if they were there all the time….

That, if nothing else, makes buying this place so worth it – he hadn't exactly been permitted to cut holes in the floor in his last place, after all.

 _'I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, maybe,'_ he thinks, leaning his head back against the black cushions of the couch and staring up at the ceiling above. It's now painted bistre, to match with the hardwood floor. It's all a bit dark maybe, but with the sienna and burgundy walls, it doesn't look half bad if he says so himself. _'Thank you, Anzu and your painfully long shopping sessions,'_ the man thinks to himself with a chuckle. To think he'd be happy about those hours spent with her, shopping for her flat some years back.

The amusement of the thought fades almost as quickly as it rose as he remembers that he'd never see Anzu again. _An_ Anzu he might meet here, sure, but not _his_ Anzu. Not his Jonouchi either – the man's not going to storm his flat with the girls ever again. Yugi's never going to see his god daughters again.

Sighing, the man lifts a hand and runs it over his eyes. He had tried not to think about it, about the actual implications of the whole situation. True, he hasn't had any word from Kaiba or his eggheads about the whole time travel thing but… he's pretty much sure there's no way to get back – he feels it, inside him, how very _stuck_ he is, how lost. And how far that world that he's from is – it might as well not even exist anymore, from his point of view.

And he feels a bit guilty about the fact that when push comes to shove… he doesn't _mind_ it that much. That's why it had been easy to forget what he's lost – easy to ignore the fact that the Kaiba he had duelled with wasn't _his_ Kaiba, and that the Grandpa at the game store isn't his _Grandpa_.

The house around him is quiet – it smells like fresh paint, fresh furniture, cleanliness. And when he shifts on the couch, the sound of leather creaking echoes in the living room.

"Aren't I the lowest?" Yugi murmurs into the silence and opens his eyes, staring at the dark ceiling. This is Nagoya all over again, except better and worse – this time the past isn't there anymore, in the form of friends and old opponents, trying to call him back. No, he can just shake himself loose and do whatever he wants.

He really should feel a bit worse about it. His Grandpa is old and getting older – and without Yugi there, he's left with no relatives to take care of him. And maybe Yugi feels a bit awful about that, but…. His friends would take care of the old man, Sugoroku is like a grandfather to them all.  And wouldn't his grandfather want him to move on?

Maybe not like this. And hell, he's not even moving on, not really. But he _is_ embracing the opportunities here. That's not bad… is it? No one could blame him for trying to make good out of an awkward situation. Well maybe they could blame him for taking advantage of the future technology he’d had with him, but for starting a life here? Anyone would do that, wouldn't they?

Well, they probably wouldn't do it this fast.

Shaking his head, Yugi stands up and looks around the living room. The carpets and rugs he had bought are still rolled up in their plastic bags, lying in a pile. The furniture is all askew all over – both here and in the other rooms. Everything's a bit finer and a bit more expensive than he’d had before – and maybe he had indulged himself a bit too much, but… what's the use of money if you don't use it, right?

"Time to start decorating," he mutters and with a shake of his head gets to work, staring with the master bedroom. Thankfully the people from the furniture shops had put the bed just where he wants it – it's entirely too big and way too heavy for him to move it – but it's up to him to arrange the rest there. No bedside tables, just two chests to each side of the bed and a third one under the window, and dark maroon carpets. He makes the bed too, thankful that he had managed to find sheets big enough, before leaning back. He'll get some stuff for the walls once it'd be safe to hang things up and maybe curtains, and then the room would look pretty decent.

Next the living room, where he shifts the couch and the two armchairs he bought around until he finds a good enough place – that leaves the majority of the floor space open. He pushes the TV table into the corner just next to the windows – he doesn't have a TV yet, but once he did it'd be the best spot for it. While contemplating on whether or not to get blinds – wooden ones maybe, or bamboo – he unwraps some of the carpets and spreads them on the floor.

He's contemplating one of the two chestnut drawers he bought for the living room when the doorbell rings. Knowing that it couldn't be anyone else, Yugi goes to open the door somewhat distractedly, still wondering whether or not to put the drawers between or beside the bookshelves.

"Well, this place looks a lot different," Sugoroku says as he and Yugi's younger self cautiously venture into the room. "I see you really did paint the place."

"Well, not really – I hired people to do it. It would've taken me way too long to do it by myself," Yugi shrugs, motioning them to come in.

"Whoa. You went all out didn't you?" Yugi's younger self murmurs while Atemu manifests in his incorporeal state. "It doesn't look half bad."

"I like the colour scheme," the spirit notes, looking around. "It's very… warm."

"Wait until the walls dry and I can start hanging up decorations. It'll look awesome," Yugi snorts, shaking his head and walking back to the drawers. "I bought some furniture to your room too – bed, table, that sort of thing, but you can decide how to put them yourself and the rest of the decoration is up to you. Just don't put anything against the walls yet – the paint's drying."

"Really?" his younger self perks up. "Which one of the rooms is mine?

"The one closest to the kitchen," Yugi says, motioning to the steps leading to the kitchen and from there to the corridor to the other rooms. "The one across is going to be my work room and the one beside it is going to be the guest room."

"Sweet," the teen says with a grin and then bounces ahead, Atemu hesitating for a moment after him before being forced to follow by the pull of the Puzzle.

"Well," Sugoroku says, looking around. "It's looking like something, I guess. Not as good as home."

"So says you," Yugi grins and then points at the drawers. "Now, what do you think? By the window, or below the countertop? I still got bookshelves I’ll put up later, but I kind of want to figure out a proper place for these two before that."

In the next hour or so, he and Sugoroku shift the furniture first in the living room, then in the office and the guest room until everything is about where it ought to be. Meanwhile they can hear past-Yugi arguing with the spirit in his bedroom and how the teen moves the furniture about – and when Yugi takes a peak, he finds that his past self has put the desk in the corner and the bed below the window.

"I need a book shelf and some place to put my clothing," Yugi's younger self says thoughtfully while Atemu sits on the side of the bed. "You know, for when I stay here."

"I got some bookshelves, but they're still in pieces," Yugi shrugs. "You can get one later. And your bedroom is next to a _wardrobe_ half the size of your room. Put your clothes there if you need to put them somewhere."

"Oh. I forgot about that," the teen says, grinning. "Hey, can I put posters up?"

"Yes, but only in a couple of days and then only with blutack. Use tacks on my walls and die," Yugi says with a half-hearted glare before heading back to the living room to fetch a pillow, some sheets, and a bedcover for Yugi's bed. After getting them, he helps the teen put them on, ignoring his younger self's frowns about the dark brown bedcover.

"Does everything here have to be in earthly tones?" the kid asks.

Yugi considers it for a moment. "Yes. Yes it does. Which reminds me, you need to pick a carpet. Choices are russet, bistre or burgundy."

His younger self looks up with bafflement. "Are those even real words? What are they supposed to mean?"

Yugi grins at that. "Reddish brown, dark brown, or dark velvety red," he explains. "Anzu got so into home décor at one point that it put your and my interest in Duel Monsters to shame. I learned a lot of new words during that time." Not to mention more than he needed to know about home décor.

"Okay," the teen says shaking his head while Atemu chuckles. "Bistre. That sounds like some place where you eat."

"You're thinking of a bistro," Yugi snorts. "Now go and pick a carpet and we'll put it in."

"Fine," his younger self sighs. "But I reserve the right to completely ruin the colour scheme with posters later on."

Yugi shakes his head as the teen heads out of the room. "How are you liking the place?" he asks Atemu, who stands up to follow the younger him.

"It is very nice. Not that there is anything wrong with Grandfather Sugoroku's house but… I like the colours here," the spirit says with a smile, and then heads out through the open door way before the pull of the Puzzle can force him.

"Yeah," Yugi murmurs to himself, looking around. "You would like it, wouldn't you?" It's not _quite_ Egyptian, but… well. There's a reason why Yugi himself prefers browns and reds mixed.

His younger self chooses a bistre carpet that matches the ceiling and after they've put it in, they both head to the living room to find Sugoroku sitting on the couch, just looking outside.

"I have to admit, this is quite a view," the old man says, nodding at the ceiling-to-floor windows. "You might want some curtains though, or half of the city will always be able to see what you're doing up here."

"Nah, not really. Not that many people actually do look up, you know. But I'm thinking blinds," Yugi answers, folding his arms. "Wooden ones, either burnt umber or sienna…."

"You're just making up words, aren't you?" his younger self asks suspiciously, coming to his side – close enough to almost lean against him.

"Yes, absolutely, I'm inventing colours just to confuse you," Yugi answers with a grin and gives into his younger self's lack of personal space – just this once – by throwing an arm around the teen's shoulders and squeezing him slightly. Then he looks about himself. "Next order of business, electronics."

"You gonna get a Play Station?" Yugi asks hopefully.

"Nah. I'll wait for the Play Station 2," Yugi shrugs with a small sigh. He's going to miss the seventh generation consoles before long, he just knows it. Well, maybe that is just a good thing. He'd waste less time playing, that is for sure.

"You might look into getting some kitchen ware first," Sugoroku points out. "And have you still not bought any new clothing? You're still wearing the exact same stuff – keep this up and you'll start getting a distinctive odour to you."

"Not exactly the same – I did get underwear, socks, and a couple of new shirts," Yugi says with as much dignity as he can muster. "You have no idea how hard it is to find good leather trousers in my size."

"Haven't thought of wearing something else, have you?"

"Why, I'd never!"

"What else are you going to get?" Yugi's younger self asks, looking up at him while leaning into his side. "Proper sound system, right? And a big TV."

"Maybe," Yugi sighs. Oh, god, there wouldn't be any proper LCDs or plasma screens out there, would there? And there'd be no way that LED screens of any sort would be on the market yet. He'd need to get a CTR TV. And any inch above 32 would probably be worth its weight in gold. _'I'm going to miss you, my beautiful 46" HDTV….'_

Beside him his past-self jerks a bit, shooting a look up at him."Did you say something?"

"I said maybe," Yugi answers heavily. "I'll have to see what they have first. I just bet it's all going to suck so bad compared to what they have in the future. Oh, god, they don't even have proper online gaming in this time, do they?"

"Are you going to cry?" his younger self asks suspiciously while Atemu chuckles in the background.

"I might," Yugi admits with a morose sigh. To think that he'd miss the days of World of Warcraft.

"Look into getting some kitchen appliances first, for crying out loud – plus cleaning supplies. Day to day survival first, entertainment and games later," Sugoroku says with a shake of his head and stands up. "I swear, twenty seven and you're still a little boy inside."

Yugi just grins at that.

"So, um," his younger self asks awkwardly, his hand coming to rest on Yugi's lower back tentatively. "Are you going to stay here from now on? I mean. You got a bed for yourself too, didn't you?"

"Yes I did, and a wonderful bed it is. But I don't want to stay here yet, not before the paint dries properly – and besides, I really do need kitchen appliances first. Not to mention food and all that," Yugi admits and squeeze's the teen's shoulders again. "So a couple more days and I'll be out of your hair."


	19. Annoyance

It's only a week until summer holidays end. Katsuya sighs to himself while trekking down the street, hands in his pocket and shoulders slouched as he thinks back to the summer. The whole summer, they've been so busy, with the BattleCity tournament. It's been weird, the days afterwards when there have been no duels to fight, no opponents to hunt down – and no psychopath after their souls which, granted, has been nice but also….

It's boring now. It's hard to go back to a normal life after stuff like that, especially to a life like his. Sure, he can go to the arcade to get away from his asshole dad and _finally_ mom's letting him visit Shizuka whenever he wants to – she had even let him stay over a couple of times. Said something about his new friends having a better influence on him than his old ones _whatever_ that means. But still….

Maybe he's growing jaded – again – but things are just generally less exciting when his life is no longer on the line. Okay, yeah, maybe he wouldn't want to go back to that exactly – or to having his friends lives and souls on the line because _that_ hadn't been fun at all – but… but.

God it's so boring now. Especially with everyone being so busy getting ready for school. Anzu's been locked away at her house studying after all the time they had missed thanks to the tournament, same with Honda – who has also been roped into taking care of his sister's kid after she’d had a falling out with her husband or something. Even Shizuka's doing nothing but studying, trying to catch up with her studies after having missed months from school. _School_! After all they've been through, they're going back to _school_.

 _'Well, Yug's still gonna be Yug, though,'_ Katsuya thinks to himself and looks up as the Kame Game Shop comes into view. Yugi's as bad at studing as he is – and infinitely more likely to get distracted by one game or another. Maybe Katsuya could tempt his little friend into a duel – not with holograms maybe, Katsuya had had to leave his Duel Disk at his mom's place to keep his dad from "accidentally" selling it – but just a plain old hologram-free duel could be nice too….

"Morning, gramps!" the teen calls as he pushes the door open, waving a greeting to Sugoroku who is reading a newspaper behind the counter. "Is Yug around?"

"Well if it isn't Jonouchi," the old man says, smiling and folding the paper. "Been a while since you've been around. How's your sister?"

"She's doing great," Katsuya grins. Being boring is what she's being, but aside from that she is actually doing pretty great. "All the follow up check-ups went swimmingly, and she says that she doesn't see double so much anymore."

"That's great to hear," Sugoroku smiles with a nod. "Do tell her to come around sometime too. This shop can always use more female customers."

"Yeah, I bet," Katsuya snorts. "So, is Yug around or what?"

"Yeah, They - he's just upstairs, though… I'll just call him, will I?" Sugoroku says and heads to the back of the store, leaving Katsuya blinking after him with confusion.

Call him? Usually Gramps was fine with him just going right ahead, always reminding him to take his damned shoes off and not trek dirt all over the place but that was about it. Why can't he go in now?

"Yugi!" the old man calls. "Jonouchi's here to see you."

Folding his arms, Katsuya frowns. Has he missed something? Yugi promised not to go see the tablet thingy at the museum by himself, and he had said that he was going to take some time to think about it anyway, prepare himself – themselves. Yugi and the Pharaoh couldn't have gone by themselves, right? Yug wouldn't do that to his pals… right?

There's quiet for a moment before Katsuya can hear Yugi's muffled voice coming from the upstairs and then Sugoroku returns to the store. "You can go up," the old man says with a weird twinkle in his eyes. "Try not to lose your cool."

"What?" Katsuya asks, thoroughly creeped out by now.

"Just go and see," Sugoroku grins and settles himself down on the bench behind the counter with the atmosphere of someone who is waiting for great entertainment.

Circling around the counter cautiously while giving the old man a sideways look, Katsuya makes his way to the stairs and then up, not sure what to expect but preparing for the worst. Though if the lunatic version of Marik is going to jump at him, he is so totally not going to be held accountable for his actions.

"Jou!" Yugi says, practically bouncing out of the kitchen. "Hey – what's up?"

"Nothing much, Yug. Just got bored lounging back at home," Katsuya grins, though still on the edge as he toes off his sneakers and leaves them by the others, frowning a big of pair boots that look like something a rock star would wear. They're too big to be Yugi's though. "So, Gramps was being all creepy down there and he gave me a weird look – so what's going on?"

"Ah, well. It's, um. A bit hard to explain," Yugi answers with an expression that's half a smile and half a grimace.

"Showing's easier than explaining," a voice calls to them from the kitchen. "Jou's a big boy, he can handle it."

While Katsuya blinks at the words – Yugi's the only one he ever lets him call _Jou_ – Yugi shrugs. "Yeah, okay," the smaller teen says and then takes Katsuya's hand and leads him to the kitchen.

"Uh," the blond says, at the sight of the man sitting by the kitchen table with the newspaper open before him and a tea cup in his hand. He _looks_ like Yugi and yet…. Yugi's never had this guy's guns. And he's different in other ways too. A lot of ways. "Pharaoh?" Katsuya asks, uncertain, looking between the two versions of Yugi. Had Yugi really gone to the tablet of memories without him, and the others?

"Bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid," the man says, grinning, lifting the cup to his lips and taking a drink before leaning back.

"The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle is still here," Yugi says, touching the Puzzle. "This is, uhm… me. From the future."

"Uh," Katsuya says again, his mouth hanging slightly open as he looks between the bigger and smaller Yugi and – really? Is that even possible? Well it's Yugi, but still, there's a limit to everything, especially to weirdness, because, hell, time travel, that's stretching it a bit too far, even for Yugi, and….

"Alternate future," the man says and tilts his head, thinking about it. "Hell, you could call me Yugi's _mirror_ version. A slightly older one."

"What, like in Star Trek?" Katsuya asks with disbelief, his mind turning in confused circles, and then he narrows his eyes. "Does that make you evil? Where's the beard? Are you like Marik, because let me tell you, I have a punch I had been saving for that asshole, but never could deliver and I think I could be satisfied giving it to some other asshole."

The man laughs at that, shaking his head.

Katsuya's eyes narrow further and he turns to his pal. "Yug, what are you doing, letting your evil alter ego lounge about like this?" he asks.

"He's not evil – and you, stop laughing," Yugi says, pointing a finger at the man.

"No, no, it's funny – because when you think about it, he's sort of right," the man says, grinning as he lowers his tea cup. "In more ways than one."

"I knew it!" Katsuya says and feels the urge to try and get between the guy and Yugi – though he does realise that it's a bit ridiculous, seeing that the guy was present even before he got around and has been for who knows how long. And since Yugi doesn't seem to mind the guy….

But there _is_ something off about the guy. Way off – and it's not just the clothing because Yugi probably has a lot of clothing similar in his closet, the fashion-confused weirdo that he is. It's not the attitude either, though the guy obviously has a rotten one. It's something else. Narrowing his eyes, Katsuya tries to figure out what it is.

"Oh, stop it," Yugi says. "He's not evil, just different. And weirder."

"Why thank you. You're all heart, my dear younger self," the man says, shaking his head and turning back to the paper.

Then Katsuya sees it. "But he can't be you," he argues, turning to Yugi. "He doesn't even have the Puzzle. This is some sort of trick, gotta be."

Yugi grimaces and there is a moment of odd silence before he shakes his head. "Yeah, there's a reason for that – I'll explain later maybe. Just rest assured, he's me and he is _not_ evil – quiet there, you're not helping," he adds, pointing at the man who snorts at the words.

"Still not believing it," Katsuya says, though he has to relax a bit – if Yugi's so okay with the guy, he's probably not been trying to stab people in their sleep. Probably. "Time travel's not possible," he says, though he has no idea if it is. After all the stuff they've seen, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch actually.

"Maybe right now it isn't, but eventually…" the man shrugs and then shifts in his seat, lifting his hips a bit to get his hand behind him – but before Katsuya can decide whether to look away or tell the guy to behave himself for god's sake, the man's pulled out a deck of Duel Monsters cards from his belt holster.

As they watch, the guy takes three cards from one side of the deck and lays them one by one to the table. First Obelisk, then Osiris and finally Ra. "How's that for proof?" he asks, looking up with a smirk.

Kind of damning, actually, but Katsuya still leans in to take a closer look. "Could be fakes?" he says, but without much energy. He knows what happened to the last people who tried to fake a god card – it hadn't been pretty. "You could've stolen them from Yug."

"No, mine are still in their box back in my room," Yugi says, though he's leaning in too. "I thought you said you didn't have them."

"I never said I didn't have them, just that they're not in my deck and that I don't play with them. I still carry them around. Safest place to keep them, really, is my deck holster," the guy shrugs, lifting one of the cards and running a finger along the edge. "I didn't want to in the beginning because I was afraid I might damage them accidentally if I carried them in my deck, but look. Still pristine. Eleven years and not so much a as crease."

"Well, of course not. The power of gods is in these cards," Yugi murmurs, taking the Osiris card and eying the red dragon with a frown. "… the power of gods. Right – um, is it okay for there to be doubles of these cards around, though?"

"It's fine. It's not actually as if the gods themselves are in the cards. The cards are just a channel for it - it's not like gods could be trapped in pieces of cardboard you know," the older Yugi says, shrugging. "Now there are just two channels for each god, nothing more or less."

"I see," Yugi murmurs. "That's a relief, I guess."

Katsuya looks between the pair of them while the older Yugi puts the cards away again. "A future-Yugi?" he asks with disbelief. "How'd that happen?"

"It's a long story," the older one says solemnly.

"Actually it isn't. Some gadget at a science expo in his time sent him back, we found out just a few days back," Yugi says with a shake of his head. "And he's been staying here, more or less, since then. Except _now_ he's got a flat and he's going to move out." The last is said while glaring at the man.

"Oh come off it already. You're not going to talk me into staying at the game shop, especially not after all the money I've spent on the house. I even got you your own room!" the older one says, rolling his eyes. "And don't give me the kitty-eyes, I'm growing immune."

"Science expo?" Katsuya murmurs confusedly while the two of them argue. "So… it was an accident? You didn't come back to, I don't know, to save the world from certain damnation? From the robot uprising or something?"

"No, sadly I am not from the Terminator," the elder Yugi snorts. "It was a complete accident as far as we know. Kaiba's looking into it, though."

"Kaiba? What does the moneybags have to do with this?" Katsuya asks, narrowing his eyes and then turns to Yugi. "Don't tell me you told _him_ before me. And wait, he's been here long enough to get a flat? The hell?"

"Ah. Well. We sort of had to tell Kaiba? Kaiba's the only person who knows how can cover up something like time travel – and he needed IDs, and a plausible background and stuff like that," Yugi says awkwardly. "And I was going to tell you? Just, things have been busy since this started and… e he he he…."

Katsuya narrows his eyes a bit further and his shorter friend laughs sheepishly.

"I'm sorry?" Yugi offers with a pathetic pleading look and Katsuya has to force back a snort.

Still. The guy is missing the Puzzle and that's… well. Considering everything, all the bullshit Yugi's gone through for the thing – the _fire_ for god's sake, the guy had almost died for the Puzzle, probably would've if Katsuya hadn't been there to keep the little fool alive… "How's the other Yugi taking this?" He asks then, looking between the older and the younger Yugi, wondering.

Yugi shrugs his shoulders and then touches the Puzzle hanging about his neck, closing his eyes. When he opens them, the look in them is way different as he straightens his back a bit, leaning his shoulders back more.

"I am taking it… fine," the Pharaoh says, shaking his head with a smile and looking at the elder Yugi. "Not that it is my place to object to it, in any case."

"You have as much say in this as anyone else," the future-Yugi says, turning a page in his newspaper. "Problem is that there’s not much any of us can do right now."

"Except _move out_ ," the Pharaoh says, lifting his eyebrows and giving the man a level look.

"Are _you_ going to start giving me kitty eyes too?" the man asks suspiciously, looking at him over the newspaper. "Because I’ve got to tell you, I am not sure how I would handle it."

Katsuya snorts at that. There's probably something he's missing, but if the Pharaoh's okay with things, then things are… probably… okay. But then again it's not like _any_ Yugi is exactly infallible. They had the bad habit of getting themselves set on fire – and stepping in to take attacks aimed at others.

"So have you told anyone else?" Katsuya asks, looking at the two Yugi's while the Pharaoh retreats and the actual Yugi takes control of his body.

"Not yet," Yugi admits.

"It's not like it's too wise, spreading the word about a time traveller," the elder Yugi says, lifting the paper to look at something more closely. "People might get ideas and I don't have any intention of ending up as someone's science project."

The blond teen winces a bit at that. Ouch. Is that really a possible threat? Well, time travel… actually it's a wonder Kaiba hadn't locked the man up after seeing him. It sounds like something moneybags would do.

"Yeah and that," the younger Yugi adds, frowning. "But I should probably tell the others though, or they'll be mad at me when they find out later on. Is that okay? Just Anzu, Honda, Ryou and Otogi. That's okay, right?"

"Sure," the older Yugi says, smiling. "So long as everyone knows that I'll have their balls if they spill the beans."

While Yugi blinks at the words with shock, Katsuya can't help the snort that escapes at the words. "Even Anzu?" he asks, imagining her reaction to hearing a version of Yugi saying something like that. She'd be mortified. Kind of like the younger Yugi is right now.

"Being as she is, my – or Yugi's – oldest friend… especially her," the older Yugi says, while the younger one looks mortified and Katsuya laughs.

"So, the future, huh?" he says, sitting down by the table and looking at future-Yugi a bit more closely. How old is the guy? In his twenties anyway. And man, but Yugi grows up _good_ – maybe not to be the tallest guy around, but yeah. With those biceps he probably pack's a decent punch.

Katsuya wouldn't want to be Yugi's former bullies in the future.

 "What's the future like?" he asks curiously while Yugi sits down beside him, both of them looking at the man across the table who's gone back to perusing the paper. "Am I rich and successful? I ought to be."

"You were, but then the zombie apocalypse happened and well, the last I saw you, you were gnawing on people's brains," the older Yugi says without looking up, his face perfectly straight.

 


	20. In the Storm

"… And so officially his name is Minamoto Yuto now, thanks to Kaiba," Yugi finishes while his dumbstruck friends stare at his elder self – who is currently sitting on his grandfather's armchair, looking through a catalogue from some electronics store and making notes about the things he needs to buy.

"Yeeah," Jonouchi adds, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. "It took me a while to get it too, but it's pretty legit."

"But, uh. Time travel?" Honda asks with disbelief, looking between Yugi and his elder self. "Okay, so he looks a lot like you, but that's not proof enough. Is it?" he asks, turning to the others, looking a bit confused.

"I don't know," Otogi says, peering at future-Yugi thoughtfully. "Weirder things have happened around Yugi. Hey, can you tell us the future?"

"You get a tattoo surgically removed in two thousand and seven," Yugi's elder self says without looking up. "And Dungeon Dice Monsters does poorly as a 3D app and I suggest you don't bother with it the next time."

"Wha – tattoo?" the black haired teen asks, blinking.

"Hey, why’d you tell him what happens in the future and not me?" Jonouchi asks, pointing a finger at the man. "You just spouted some bull about zombies at me – it's not fair."

"Who's to say it was bull?" future-Yugi grins, glancing up at the blond and then to the others. "You okay there, Anzu?" he asks then, raising his eyebrows and making Yugi turn to his oldest friend – who so far hasn't said anything.

"Uh, um…. It's a bit…" Anzu says, rubbing a knuckle over her lower lip in thought before sitting down on the couch beside him. "Is it okay for you to be here, like this? Knowing the future and all?"

"Wait, you believe me?" Yugi asks, delighted.

"You believe him?" Honda and Otogi ask in unison, surprised.

"Of course I do – it's obviously Yugi," she says, waving a dismissive hand at them. "Who else could it be? I mean _really_. The clothing, the height, the facial structure… sure he's older and a bit different but the eyes give it away if not the ears. And honestly, who else has hair like that?"

"Hey," Yugi says together with his older self, feeling vaguely insulted. "There's nothing wrong with my hair," Yugi adds while his older self runs a self-conscious hand through his golden bangs.

"Of course there isn't," Anzu says patiently with a little smile. "It's perfectly nice hair. But I've never seen another human being with the like."

"I have," Yugi's elder self says with a sigh while tugging at the shorter bang in the middle absently. "Dyeing your bangs gets pretty popular at one point. It's awful. Not to mention embarrassing."

While the guys exchange a look Anzu lets out a chuckle. "But still. Is it okay, this?" she asks, motioning between the man and Yugi who is trying not to imagine a world where his hair style is a more popular style. "I mean, aren't you in danger of causing a paradox or something?"

"No, not really. Because even if this is a past, it's not _my_ past, because I don't remember any of this happening from mini-me's point of view," Yugi's future self says. "And because I am here his future is going to be different from my past. I'm basically from the future of an alternate world – and not from your future.

"Which means," the man adds, motioning at Jou, "That even if I tell you about what happened to you in my past, it might never happen here."

"Well that means you can tell us all about it then, right?" Jonouchi asks eagerly.

"Maybe, but I'm not gonna," the man says, grinning and going back to the catalogue. "If I tell you then you're even less likely to do things the way you did in my past, and I'm kind of hoping you will do them."

Yugi blinks at that a bit, turning to the man. "You don't want to change Jou's future?" He asks, first confused – and then he remembers. "Oh yeah,"he murmurs. _'Jou has kids in his time….'_

"Wait, wait, wait," Jonouchi rounds on him. "What does that mean – don't tell me you know? Well that's not fair – why you get to know and not me? Come on Yug, gimme a spoiler."

"Mm… nope," Yugi says, smiling.

"Aww, come on, man!"

"Are you sure that it's different though?" Otogi asks thoughtfully. "It could be the same but you just forgot – and Yugi's going to forget, maybe?"

"And you guys never told me?" Yugi's future self asks, shaking his head. "You're good at keeping secrets, but not that good. And besides when I sold Kaiba the phone I had with me, I changed this timeline pretty much irrevocably – unless he _doesn't_ take advantage of the phone, and that's not the Kaiba I know."

"True," Otogi murmurs.

"So, uh. We're all believing this?" Honda asks, looking between them. "Okay then," he says, frowning a moment before turning to Yugi's future self. "What are you going to do? You know aside from moving out and selling Kaiba future revolutionising technology and all that. Are you going to change the future – except for Jonouchi's?"

"What's so special about my future that it can't be changed?" the blond asks with irritation before blinking. "Heey, does that mean my future is going to be so awesome it doesn't need to be changed? Excellent."

The elder version of Yugi shrugs his shoulders and glances up – at Yugi. "I guess I'm changing _some_ things," he admits before looking down at the catalogue again and turning a page. "Hopefully for the better. But I'll try and not get involved with things – it's not exactly my place. All thought, I guess I'm not beyond telling you how to avoid some stuff that went bad for you in the future – but there wasn't a lot of those."

"And… that's okay?" Anzu asks, looking up at the others. "I mean is it right for us to know stuff like that?"

Yugi shrugs at that. "I don't really see the harm in it myself," he says, touching the Puzzle. "I already know what happened to him and I… I hope a lot of it won't happen to me and I'll try and make my future different," he adds, looking down to avoid seeing his future self's wince – though he can still almost feel it. "No offence, future me, but… I don't want to be you."

"And I don't want you to be me," the man says quietly, and for a moment the living room is quiet as Yugi's friends look between them confusedly.

"So…" Anzu finally breaks the awkward quiet. "You got a flat, huh? Is it nice?"

"It's enormous," Yugi says quickly while his older self just shrugs, grateful for the change of subject. "It’s got _four bedrooms_ and the living room is enormous."

They talk about the flat for a moment, Yugi's future self shaking his head a bit at them while keeping making notes about the appliances – at least up until Honda sees what he is doing and starts suggesting models. Apparently his family had gone through various sorts so he knows which ones suck and which ones are still working. Jou and Otogi get into the talk too and somehow turn it away from washing machines into which sort of stereo set the future-Yugi ought to get and whether or not bigger speakers were better.

"So this is all okay with you, huh?" Anzu asks quietly, coming to stand beside Yugi while the guys argue over which makes were better. "A future you… I think it would be weird for me."

Yugi shrugs, folding his arms. "It was a bit in the beginning but… I guess I'm used to stuff like this, so it didn't really bother me for long," he says, turning to her. "And he's a bit… different. So while he’s me, he also isn't and that sort of helps, I guess."

"Hm," she says, looking at the guys – who are now staring at the future Yugi in dumbstruck horror when the man had commented something about CD players becoming obsolete.

"Well what's the point when you can carry hundreds of CD's worth of music in a music player the size of your finger?" the man shrugs. "Same will happen to VHS pretty soon. DVDs and BluRay F.T.W. Except everyone just downloads everything online anyway so…."

The other guys exchange a look. "Okay, I know DVDs but what the hell is a BluRay F.T.W? What does that even mean?" Jou asks with a suspicious look, making the man grin widely at them.

Yugi shakes his head a bit at his future self. Future-Yugi's gotten a bit freer with his _slips_ about the future, especially when it comes to technology. Most of the time what he says might as well have been in an alien language.

"So, um…" Anzu hesitates, glancing at him. "What about the Pharaoh?" she asks, and glances at the elder version of Yugi – at his obviously Puzzle-free front. "I'm guessing he didn't just choose not to wear the Puzzle today."

"…no. There was some stuff that happened to him and he hasn't had his Puzzle in years," Yugi murmurs, touching his Puzzle and smiling a bit at the feeling of reassurance coming from the spirit inside. "He's not told me everything – he can't, there's magic involved after all – but… I know roughly what will happen. And I think I can – I think things will go different for me."

"And that's better?" Anzu asks thoughtfully, worriedly.

"Yeah. If things will go differently, then yeah. It'll be so much better," Yugi murmurs and looks up at his oldest friend before shrugging his shoulders. "I'm fine. And hopefully we," he motions at his elder self, "will be fine too, in the future."

"Well, if you say so," she sighs, resting her hands at her hips. Then, shaking her head a little, she smiles. "At least he didn't break in pieces at the sight of any of us, so I am betting all of us will survive to see the future ten years from now. I'll just count that as a win. Now," she turns a perceptive look at him. "What did he tell you about my future?"

"Ah… that you taught him lot of weird colour words?" Yugi says, leaning back a bit. "I didn't even know there was a colour called _bistre_ before he used it to paint his ceiling."

Anzu blinks at that with confusion. "Bistre? I don't think I know it," she admits. "What colour is it?"

"Sort of dark brown? Wait, does this mean I know more about home décor than you do, now? That's _weird_ ," Yugi murmurs.

"Hm… I guess I would learn it in the future," Anzu murmurs and looks at the guys, who are now trying to convince the future Yugi that a full surround stereo system would be the smartest purchase in the world. "And he told you nothing else?" she asks, aiming a narrow look at him.

"Uhm… erm," Yugi edges away carefully. "Nothing very detailed – really you should ask him, not me. He's the one who knows, not me?"

They both turn to look at the elder Yugi – who has somehow ended up arm wrestling with Honda. The smirk on the man's face looks more like something that belongs on the face of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle – but then, Yugi would be smirking too if he could have produced the same effort. _He_ would've been beaten in less than a second, but his future self is definitely holding his ground.

 _'Well. I guess it's not just for show then,'_ Yugi muses, both a bit weirded out and strangely jealous at the sight of the vein pulsing on his older self's forearm. The man really has nice arms. _'Though, since he's future me… does that mean I'll one day have arms like that?'_

 _'I think you have the potential, partner. You'll have to give it a few more years maybe, but eventually…'_ the spirit comments amusedly. _'And of course you'd actually have to do some physical exercise too.'_

 _'Silence in the peanut gallery,'_ Yugi answers with an internal harrumph.

"Yeah, maybe I'll ask him about it later," Anzu laughs. "Why isn't Bakura here?" she asks then. "I thought Jonouchi said he called us all."

"He did, but Bakura wasn't home. According to his dad he's busy at the museum, doing some project or something," Yugi shrugs. "I'll tell him about all of this later, when he isn't so busy."

"The museum, huh," Anzu says thoughtfully. "You… haven't gone to see the Tablet of Memories yet, have you? How long is the exhibition going to be in the museum anyway?"

"Couple months more, actually, so I am not in a hurry. And I was going to go there before school starts, but…" Yugi glances at his older self. "But other stuff came up and we're still thinking about it."

"I guess that's understandable. But you're still going to do it, aren't you? Or the Pharaoh is," Anzu murmurs, trailing away.

"Yeah, at some point," Yugi nods. That's never really been under debate. "But… there are other things to think about before we do." And a lot of things to talk about, he adds silently while watching his older self beat Honda in their little contest of strength.

 


	21. Kick in the Head

"You didn't have to come," the older Yugi says while leading Yugi and the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle through a rather shady clothing store. "And don't think I’m buying you anything. I'll be hard pressed to find anything in my size, and I doubt there's anything in yours."

"I don't mind. I just want to spend time with you before you ruthlessly abandon us," Yugi says cheerfully, hands clasped tightly around his elder self's arm. "Besides I have my own money so it's not like I can't buy anything for myself."

The spirit smiles faintly at the pair of them before looking around the store. It's all leather there, everything from gloves to boots to trousers to jackets – and they even have what looks like a very strange lingerie section. And there is also a rather impressive selection of a variety of jewelleries and the spirit's eyes are drawn almost by themselves to the gleam of the silver bracelets.

He probably _shouldn't_ bother Yugi to buy yet more of them. He's already been a bit too big of a drain on Yugi's wallet, where jewellery goes.

"So, are you going to buy something else, except trousers and stuff?" Yugi asks as they head for the racks holding said trousers.

"We'll see. I might get another pair of boots and I do need jackets – summer will be over eventually and I can't exactly go through the winter in sleeveless tops," the man answers, trying to shake his right hand loose from Yugi's hold and then sighing and instead starting to test the material of the trousers with his left hand. "Hmm, these are all synthetic."

"They look nice. Very… gleaming," Yugi notes with a grin.

"Yeah, well, I have no intention of looking like I'm wearing latex," the future-Yugi answers and pushes his younger self away from the rack to another one, which houses a bit less gleaming clothing. "Ah, much better," he decides and starts to go through the trousers, checking the sizes.

The spirit shakes his head with a smile and looks around. He still remembers when he had more or less accidentally introduced leather to Yugi's wardrobe. Of course, Yugi had already _had_ the trousers in his closet but his partner probably would have never worn them by himself if the spirit hadn't taken them out. Back then it had been a somewhat misguided intention of looking a bit more threatening, a bit stronger – though he doubts now that he had ever actually succeeded. Most likely he had only looked _weird_ at the start. Now though….

Now it's Yugi who selects the clothing – and there is a whole lot more leather in his closet than before. The vest, for example, with the buckles at the front and the high collar that was secured tight around the neck… Yugi had chosen it without any involvement by the spirit. Though, granted, Yugi had chosen it because it was good for keeping the chain of the Puzzle from chafing his neck, but still.

It's a bit odd – and maybe somehow gratifying – to see that in the future Yugi's gotten so comfortable with the style he accidentally had started. Though the future Yugi's style probably has very little to do with the spirit anymore – the man knows more about what he wants than the spirit does.

 _'I am not buying you more bracelets,'_ his partner's voice suddenly comes to him and the spirit realises that his eyes had been, once more, drawn into the jewellery cases.

"What, no – I didn't… I'm fine, I don't need you to buy me anything," the spirit quickly assures, looking away from the beckoning gleam of silver.

The elder Yugi turns to look at him over his shoulder, first confused and then amused. "Oh, I forgot about that," he murmurs, turning away. "The goddamn bracelets. I think I ended up having twenty of them or something."

"I’ve got something like a dozen, and I almost never wear them. Lots of them are for girls," Yugi sighs while the spirit folds his arms and looks away, embarrassed.

"There's nothing wrong with wearing girl's jewellery – they get all the pretty stuff," the man grins, lifting his left hand and turning his wrist – admiring his own single bracelet, black and silver with spikes. "But I got to admit, I prefer this sort," he adds.

"And earrings," Yugi says, lifting a hand and poking at one of the ankhs hanging from the man's ear lobe, making his future self shiver a bit as the earring jingles. "I've been thinking of having my ears pierced, but I thought I'd look a bit like Marik and that'd be weird."

"Do _I_ look like Marik?" the man asks, frowning while lifting a hand to stop the earring from swinging. "Because yeah, that would be weird."

"No, not really," Yugi admits with a snort.

The spirit turns to look, tilting his head a bit. He hasn't given much thought to the ankh earrings since the beginning – they just seem like a part of who the elder Yugi is now, but when he thinks about it. "Why ankhs?" he asks, coming closer. "They look nice, but…."

"Why'd you think?" the man asks, glancing backwards at him meaningfully.

The spirit considers that and then sighs. _'Yeah, I suppose it's obvious,'_ he muses, scratching his neck. "Right. Well, they suit you."

"Thank you," the future-Yugi says with a small smile and goes back to examining the trousers. "Now I think I’ll go try these on – so you can let go of me now," he adds, looking pointedly at his younger self.

"Fine - but I want to see what they look like too."

"I am not putting on a fashion show for you; I'm here just to get some clothing."

"But how can you tell if it looks good or not?" the younger Yugi asks plaintively.

"Ten years of excellent taste in clothing will guide me," the man snorts and finally manages to free himself from the younger duellist. The spirit chuckles a bit at the pout his partner sends after the elder Yugi – before looking quickly away as his partner turns his pout at him.

"Fine," Yugi says. "I'm going to try something on too, then. A jacket maybe; or a new vest…."

"Well I'm not going to stop you. Try that one," the spirit says, pointing at a jacket with silver studs and spikes all over the shoulders.

"Yeah, maybe not," his partner says with a strange look thrown his direction and instead goes to check more sedate jacket styles. He's in the process of trying on a leather vest with a high collar and pockets at the chest when the future-Yugi comes out of the fitting booth to get more trousers to try.

"How was it?" Yugi asks while checking his reflection in the mirror. The spirit has to admit the vest doesn't look too bad on him.

"Too loose," the man sighs, picks a couple more pairs and heads back.

After Yugi's future self has picked several pairs of leather trousers, he too starts to check out the jackets – and to the spirit's slight disappointment, he too ignores the jacket with studs at the shoulders. "I think it looks pretty good," he murmurs.

"That's your ancient Egyptian past talking," the future-Yugi says with amusement. "That's probably where the bracelets come from too – but silver isn't exactly rare in these times. And jewellery isn't actually a symbol of status. These days it's more about showing off than anything else."

"Well it still looks nice," the spirit mutters.

"If he'd have his way, you'd be walking around totally blinged out," the future Yugi murmurs – not too quietly – to the younger Yugi.

"Totally _what_?" the younger duellist asks with disbelief.

"Oh, the nineties," the man answers with a sigh. "It's like I'm stuck on an alien planet, I swear…."

Harrumphing a bit at the pair of them, the spirit ventures a bit away from them – as much as he can, anyway, seeing that he has to keep close to the Puzzle. While he examines the store's selection of boots, the two Yugis go from jackets and vests to shirts, soon both of them trying the clothing out. As they do, the spirit can't help but notice that the store keeper – a woman with a rather magnificent pink mohawk – is throwing strange looks at their direction, half curious and half suspicious.

"What is it?" the spirit asks, weaving just enough magic into the voice that, even if the woman can't hear the words, she'll feel like answering.

"I wonder how old that kid is," she murmurs, resting her chin in her palm and narrowing his eyes. "Might be that they're brothers but… the way the kid's hanging on the guy, that's a bit…."

"A bit what?" the spirit asks, now honestly curious as he too turns to look at his partner and his older self. Judging by the way Yugi has his arms thrown around the man's waist and the way he's looking up beseechingly, he's trying to convince the man to buy him something.

"Even if they're brothers or something, it still ain't right," the woman says under her breath and shakes her head, making the spirit frown.

Does she think…?

Narrowing his eyes a bit, the spirit reaches for his belt and the deck holster there, pulling out a card. "Don't think about it, it's nothing to be worried about," he whispers to her, manipulating the card's power to add the suggestion a bit of a boost. "It's all fine."

The store keeper's eyes go a bit hazy and then she shakes her head. "I guess it's none of my business," she says, and then turns to arrange some of the merchandise sitting on the counter.

Putting the cards away, the spirit turns to lean his hip against the counter and to watch the two Yugis. Well, his partner is being a bit… liberal with the man's personal space and has been since the alleyway, but the spirit hasn't given it much of a thought. They were the same person, after all. But without knowing that and without knowing _them_ … yeah, he has to admit, it might seem strange to some.

"Alright, fine, just stop with the eyes already," the elder Yugi says with irritation, trying to push the younger version of himself away. "And you better wear it too – if it turns out that you'll just hide it away in your closet and never as much as look at it, I’ll kick your ass."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" the spirit's partner says with a happy skip while hugging the jacket close to his chest.

"Ugh, sheesh," the man grumbles, quickly backing away. "You need to register those eyes as a weapon, good _god_."

Smiling at them, the spirit pushes himself away from the counter and goes to join them. "If partner gets something, can I have something too?" he asks amusedly, not really serious.

"Yeah, you should totally buy something for my other self too," Yugi says quickly, throwing a grin at the spirit and then, rather suddenly, switching places with him.

Blinking a bit, suddenly in control of Yugi's body, the spirit very nearly drops the jacket Yugi had been holding before quickly draping it across his arm. Then he sees the flat look the elder Yugi is giving him. "I wasn't actually being serious," he says quickly, holding his arms up in denial. "I was _joking_. And you're probably right about the bracelets, and all."

The man snorts at him, shaking his head. "You are ridiculous," he says. "Go pick something. Not the jacket, mind you, and nothing that'll cost me an arm and a leg, but just…. Go away and pick something."

"I really don't –"

"Go," the man orders and the spirit lets his laughing partner lead him away from the fitting booths.

"How about new shoes?" his partner asks, draping an arm around the spirit's waist, unseen by anyone but the spirit and the elder Yugi. "There were lots of, uh, blinged out ones out there, weren't there?"

"But…" the spirit hesitates, glancing at his partner and then the elder Yugi who is not even looking at them. _'Maybe I shouldn't.'_ he says silently, remembering that the store keeper might be watching and it might be strange, if he talks to his partner out loud.

"He's paying – and still a millionaire – so you should. Go ahead, pick something nice and sparkly, I don't mind – I'll even wear them," Yugi says, laughing.

 _'I don't want anything sparkly,'_ the spirit thinks a bit sullenly but can't help but look up at the selection of footwear the store has on display. A lot of them are rather heavily studded. He doubts Yugi would like wearing the sort of boots the older Yugi wears, they seem a bit heavy for his partner, but there are other sorts of shoes too, lighter – but rather nicely decorated.

There's one pair of black leather shoes, with two buckles on the top and line of silver studs running along the sides….

"Try them, try them," Yugi laughs, and feeling a bit embarrassed, the spirit goes and does just that. Later, after the elder Yugi's picked a pair of boots for himself to add to his growing pile of purchases, the spirit walks out of the store wearing not only the leather jacket Yugi had picked, but also the shoes.

"And now I have everything," the man murmurs as they head back to Grandfather Sugoroku's car. "Kitchen ware and appliances, a new sucky phone, food, cleaning stuff, hygiene products, yadda yadda yadda, and now clothing. I think…" he hesitates for a moment before looking at the spirit and at the transparent Yugi beside him. "I think today I'll be going to stay at the flat."

"Oh," the spirit murmurs, pushing his hands into the pockets of the new jacket while Yugi lets out a mixture of a harrumph and a sigh.

"Do you have to?" the incorporeal present-Yugi asks, weaving a hand around his elder self's arm. "It's only a few more days until school starts – can't you stay at the store until then?"

"No, I think now's better," the man says with a sigh while unlocking the car and dropping the bags of purchases in the back seat. "You're becoming too clingy."

"I am not," the younger Yugi murmurs while the spirit puts the bag holding Yugi's older shoes into the back seat foot space.

"Yeah, you are. No, I'll be leaving today. But you're welcome to visit any time," the elder Yugi says, looking down. "So let go of me already."

The spirit smiles a bit as his partner does no such thing. "No," the incorporeal teen says, only tightening his grip. "Can I come with you and stay the night?" he asks. "Since I’ve got my room and everything."

"That sort of defeats the purpose, so no," the man says, pushing at Yugi's forehead to try and get him to release his arm. "Suck it up, you big baby. It's not like we'll never see each other."

"But…" Yugi sighs and finally releases the man's arm. "I don't like it that you're going to be alone. It's not right."

"It is for me," the man says determinately and listens to no more arguments as he walks around the car to get to the driver's side. "Now get in, both of you, or I'm leaving you here."

Yugi sighs and the spirit reaches a tentative hand to touch his. "Come on, partner," he says softly, aware that people walking by in the street are giving them some strange looks. "It's going to be okay. Just give it time."

Yugi turns to look at him and sighs all the heavier, but let's himself be drawn back into his own body. He doesn't take the control though, so the spirit takes the shot gun seat instead, buckling himself in.

"Drama queen," the elder Yugi sighs at them while turning the engine on.

 _'Drama_ king _, thank you very much,'_ the younger one mutters from within.

The spirit nearly chokes when he hears another voice in his mind. _'Fine,'_ the future-Yugi answers with a snort. _'You're the Drama King of Games then. Congrats.'_


	22. Memory

 

"Are you done sulking yet?" Sugoroku asks while carefully opening the door to his younger grandson's room. Since the future-Yugi had picked up the last of his things before taking off and saying that he'd be fine taking the bus to his new flat, the younger Yugi hasn't as much as budged from his room. "I've made pancakes, you know."

"Don't want any," Yugi mumbles from the bed where he lies, curled around a pillow. Sugoroku doesn't know which to do at the sight of him, laugh or sigh.

 _'I suppose he was right. Yugi has gotten clingy,'_ the old man thinks, shaking his head and wondering idly if the _other_ Yugi is somewhere in the room. It doesn't matter, he decides, and steps into the room, coming to stand beside the bed before sitting down.

The bond, or whatever it can be called, between the two Yugis had formed a bit quicker than he had thought it would – not to mention that it had turned out a lot closer since the night when the future-Yugi had taken off. Now, if Sugoroku hadn't known better, he would've said that his Yugi had just been dumped by a long-term lover or something of the sort – the boy is certainly acting that way.

And yet all in all, the future Yugi had stayed with them _less than a week._

Reaching a hand to lie on the boy's shoulder, Sugoroku considers what to say – and what, actually, is bothering Yugi about this all. Lots of things most likely, but… maybe being _dumped_ isn't actually that bad of an analogy. Not that he thinks that the two had gotten _that_ close – though with the way Yugi had been clinging to his older self they might as well have been for all anyone knows – but….

But that's not really the point here, not what had been or was – but what Yugi thinks _is._

"You know, it's not necessarily about you," Sugoroku finally settles on saying, making Yugi jerk a bit under his hand.

"I never said it was," Yugi mutters.

"Yeah, maybe not – but you obviously think it," the old man snorts, tugging on his grandson's shoulder until Yugi turns to his back and faces him. "And I know it must feel like that, but despite what you think it's not because of _you_ that he left."

Yugi frowns at that, his lips forming an unhappy line as he looks away. Sugoroku smothers a smile, patting his grandson's shoulder before withdrawing his hand. For all the wisdom and kindness Yugi has, he's still a teenage boy. An unusually calm and collected teenage boy maybe, but still at that point in his life where, ultimately, he thinks _everything_ is somehow connected to him, and thus either for him or because of him.

"That future self of yours, he has more problems than you can begin to count and he wants to deal with them in his own way. In some ways you have a bit to do with those problems, but a lot of them are just him," Sugoroku says, shaking his head. "And it might seem like he left to get away from you, but that's not it, really. He probably left to get away from himself."

"What does that even mean?" Yugi asks, confused.

Sugoroku shrugs, not sure how to explain. People's hearts and minds can be stupid, and they can cause a whole load of problems to their owners – and that future grandson of his really has a big load of issues. And for all that things had gotten _easier_ since whatever had happened the night the future Yugi had run away… they had also gotten worse. Things had shifted a bit, been easier for a while for all of them – and then they had gotten a whole load more complicated.

And okay, younger Yugi probably does have something to do with it. He'd been so happy to be close to the man that he hadn't seen the sheer discomfort in the man's eyes every time he wormed up close. But it's not like Yugi was really the source of the difficulties there.

"You do know that he's not lived an all that happy life, right?" Sugoroku asks softly. It hurts a bit to even say that because, for all that he's from another future, the future-Yugi is still his grandson too and the idea that _any_ of his grandson's might be unhappy and for so long too… it's not a heartening thought. But, sadly, it is a fact. "He's been rather depressed for a rather long time; he's just gotten very good at covering it up."

His younger grandson frowns at that before finally shifting where he lies and sitting up. "Yeah," he murmurs, lifting his knees up and hugging his legs. "I don't like it at all. Not that – and I don't like it that he's moving out to live by himself. He shouldn't be alone like that."

"No, probably not," the old man agrees. It probably won't help the man as much as he obviously wishes it will but…. "It's still his choice and he's made it," Sugoroku says, patting his grandson's hair as the boy rests his chin on top of his knees. "I know you think of him as just another part of you, but you two are different individuals and what he does isn't your fault. He might be making a mistake and it might end up making things worse for everyone, but it's his mistake to make."

Yugi says nothing to that, just stares at the bedspreads for a long while. "Yeah. I know that," he says finally. "I've been talking about it with my other self, and yeah… I know. But still…" he trails away with a strange look and then shakes his head. "Is it wrong to want him to be happy?" he asks then and looks up. "I can see it in his eyes now, he's been sad so long. Is it wrong that I want to… I don't want him to be so sad and alone anymore."

"I know," Sugoroku sighs. God, but his grandson is so _kind_. How had the boy grown up that way despite everything that happened to him, the old man has no idea, but Yugi is without doubt the kindest person he's _ever_ known. "And no, it's not wrong, it's not wrong at all. But sadly it's not as easy as just that and you must know… at this point your future self almost _doesn't want_ to be happy."

"What? He _doesn't_?" Yugi asks in horror.

"Well, not exactly," the old man says, wondering how to put it. The thing about heartbreak is that, for all that people try to move on, it lingers. And people get used to it – sometimes so used to it, that they can't let go of it. Future-Yugi is like that, he's carrying his broken heart almost with pride now. He doesn't even believe that it could be fixed at this point – and he definitely doesn't believe that it deserves to be fixed.

"People get used to the way their lives end up being," Sugoroku says finally. "Sometimes, even if they're not very happy, they get used to it and they start being satisfied with it. You know that analogy about boiling a frog?"

"About how if you put a frog in cold water and slowly heat it, the frog will get used to it and eventually boil to death, never trying to save itself?" Yugi asks uncomfortably.

"Yeah. Sometimes people are like that too," Sugoroku says sadly. "Not that your future self is exactly at that point," he adds quickly and thank god. Because if future-Yugi had been like that, he probably would've taken his own life at some point. "But he's sort of like that frog. He's gotten used to the temperature."

Yugi sighs, bowing his head and burying his face in his knees for a moment. When he looks up, it's not him anymore but the _other one_ in control of Yugi's body, the change obvious in the look of his eyes, in the way he shifts out of the hunched position and straightens his shoulders. "Is it because of me, grandfather?" the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle asks quietly.

Sugoroku has to smile to that – at the word _grandfather_. Gods and demons alone know what the spirit really is, what sort of powers he truly has, but despite it all… it's heart-warming to be addressed as such by the soul that shares his grandson's body.

"In part, perhaps, but only in a small part," he says, reaching to touch the spirit's cheek, making the eyes that are so much like his grandson's and yet nothing like them widen. "You are only a lynchpin for what's going on his head," the old man says steadily. "What's going on with him… you didn't cause the problems here anymore than he wanted them created – they just happened and in the end it's no one's fault."

"But I… the spirit that was with him left him," the other-Yugi says softly.

Sugoroku chuckles. "I thought you covered that issue already," he says. "And besides, it wasn't _you_. You're already a different person from that spirit just because of these last few days. So stop feeling guilty – because none of it was _your_ fault."

When the spirit doesn't answer, just looks away in discomfort, the old man turns his chin a bit to get the spirit to look into his eyes. "Do _you_ want to leave my grandson?" he asks slowly and deliberately.

"I… no. No, I don't," the spirit whispers, a conflicted look in his eyes.

Sugoroku smiles at that and pats the teen's – the spirit's – cheek. "There, see?" he says withdrawing his hand. "Different."

The spirit sighs at that and shakes his head. "Does this mean there's nothing we can do to help the other Yugi?" he asks, shifting where he sits and crossing his ankles. "Even if I am not responsible – and I can't believe I am not in some part… I do not like seeing him so…."

"Yeah, I know – it's always hard to see those close to us unhappy," Sugoroku says with a sigh. "And to be honest, I am not sure what's wise to do." None of it is _this_ spirit's fault, but it's obvious that the spirit's presence is making things worse. Normally Sugoroku would've told the spirit – and Yugi – to just stay close and offer their support and comfort to the man… except that in this case it would probably just make things worse. And yet he's not entirely sure if being alone and solitary will help the future Yugi either.

"Be patient," he finally says. "He's obviously trying to figure things out for himself and god only knows what things will be like when he does. But in the meantime… pushing him won't help anyone. Give him space, but make sure he knows he's not alone. I think that's all we can really do, unless we want to make things worse."

"I see," the spirit murmurs.

"And meanwhile," Sugoroku adds, "you two need to figure out exactly what you want out of this."

"Huh?" the surprise on his grandson's changed face is almost comical.

"For all that his problems are his own, what's between you three is not just about him," the old man smiles, flicking a finger at the Millennium Puzzle. "It is about you two, too. What do you want? What is he to you two? What do you want to be to him? Figure that out and it might help him too. Whatever you three are to each other and however you interact… you all have your places in this little triad of yours."

"I don't…" The spirit trails away, unsure.

"You and Yugi have just gotten used to being together – but now there's the future-Yugi too and there's suddenly three of you when there was two. The dynamics are different," Sugoroku shrugs. "Compare it to a two player game turning into a three player one. They don't really work the same, you know."

"No, I don't suppose they do. But how do you figure out the rules when the third member doesn't want to play?" the spirit asks in frustration.

"With patience," Sugoroku says, patting his grandson's shoulder and standing up. "Now come on. The pancakes are getting cold."

Nothing will probably be solved thanks to his little talk, but at least his grandson – or a part of him anyway – leaves the bed. All in all, Sugoroku isn't actually all that sure if it's even that good to encourage any interactions between the two Yugis and the spirit, knowing how very different future-Yugi is – and what he really has at stake in the whole issue. The man _is_ ten years older than Yugi is, after all. And he is obviously also secure with whatever his lifestyle is, while Yugi's still pretty much in the dark about his own.

Not to mention about the fact that the man's completely aware of his own feelings while Yugi and the spirit are in the dark about theirs, whatever they might be. There's a _lot_ at risk because of that, and as much as Sugoroku hates thinking of it like that… there is a danger in the older Yugi.

But… he still doesn't want them to be unhappy. It's all very tricky, very tricky indeed. All he really can do is hope that the older Yugi still has younger Yugi's kindness and selflessness and that in the end, somehow, everything will be okay.

That somehow all three of his grandsons can be happy.


	23. Dying

For nearly an hour after finally, officially, moving into his new flat, Yugi can't stand still. He walks around aimlessly, from the master bedroom across the living room and up to the kitchen, from there down the corridor and into the bigger bathroom, before walking into the guest room, his work room, stopping by at his younger self's room before returning to the living room.

It's all his, and he likes the place – even if it's not much like his previous apartment, being much bigger, better furnished, plus the colour scheme is just the way he likes it. But it's also a bit foreign still, and despite all the work he's put into the place, it doesn't feel… real.

How odd that after all the time he had spent on making the place just how he likes it, it feels even more like a dream or a lie than it had in the beginning? And more so, after all the time he's spent wanting privacy, now that he has it – now that he can look forward to hours spent just by himself… it's the silence and the loneliness that grates on him the most.

"I guess it's true, what they say," Yugi sighs, dropping to sit on the couch. It faces the windows – which have now been covered in blinds and thin, see-through curtains. "Humans can never be satisfied," he finishes, staring through the curtains. Outside the sky is growing dark and Domino glows with the light of street lamps and electronic advertisements, not to mention lights coming from people's windows.

He should _finally_ be at ease. Maybe not perfectly at ease, maybe not perfectly satisfied, but things should be – _he_ should be…. He ought to feel _better_. He has his apartment, his space, freedom to do what he wants, and most importantly distance from his younger self and from Atemu. He should… he should feel at least a bit _calmer_ about things.

But no. There's a ball of nervous, anxious energy inside him and the apartment around him – which is supposed to give him some god damned _respite_ \- is just making it worse. It's so… not empty, but filled with things that aren't actually there. Potential, maybe. Or _lack_.

Yugi wants desperately to _do_ something, except there is nothing to be done. He's sorted out the food, everything he's bought is in its place, he's even sorted out his new clothing. He could listen to music, but he doesn't want to, he could watch TV, but he doesn't want to do that either.

He wants to… _something_. Maybe punch a wall. Or tear every piece of furniture he had so carefully situated around the rooms from their places and re-arrange everything. He wants to… wants to just _exert_ the damned energy inside himself until he doesn't have any left anymore and maybe then he'd feel at ease.

More than anything, he wants the images in his head _out of his head_. Of Atemu, shrugging on the jacket Yugi had bought for his younger self. Of his younger self, too damn close for comfort, pouting up at him. Both of them, either, neither, all of them – Yugi can't _think_ of anything else but them and it's driving him mad. His head's full of their voices and his younger self's smiles, Atemu's soft chuckles in the background, the way they look when they walk together, hand in hand.

And he sort of wants to throw something through the window and scream until his throat hurts.

Groaning softly to himself, the man covers his face with his hands and tries not to think about anything for a moment. Which of course only makes all the images come rushing back. He's seen his own eyes in the mirror before, but his younger self's eyes are somehow different and Yugi hates himself a bit because _he can remember each and every fleck of colour in them_. And Atemu, god… Atemu, Atemu, Atemu….

"Fuck," Yugi hisses through his clenched teeth, his fingers curling into his bangs, tearing at them a bit. He ought to have gotten out of the game store faster. The moment he’d had the money, he should've gone to a hotel or something, _anything_. Why the hell had he stayed for so long?

After a moment of pained stillness, he relaxes his fingers, letting his hair slip from between them. Opening his eyes he stares at his hands, at his wrists, and for one, utterly crazy moment he wonders if it would hurt much if he gouged his eyes out. Then, letting his arms drop and his hands fall to his sides, he starts to laugh softly, helplessly.

He is so utterly truly fucked that it's almost funny. And the worse thing is that despite knowing it, despite hating himself for it – and maybe a bit because of it – his blood is even now starting to pump faster and his trousers are starting to feel a bit too tight.

"No, nope, not doing this, I am _not_ that messed up," he growls to himself and his stupid body – his idiotic heart and his goddamn traitorous mind that just won't _let things go_. Hissing softly he rips his bracelets and rings off before yanking the earrings out of their holes and dropping them all to the couch.

Then, wincing slightly, he gets up and marches across the living room again, up to the kitchen, past the dining table and down the hall, to the main bathroom – where he shrugs out of his clothing and turns the water as cold as it can go, before plunging himself under it.

Not the best idea to do, really. The water's so cold that he's shivering within the first few seconds and wants to escape his very skin a few seconds after that, but it does its job. The punishing pour of the icy cold water is enough for a moment even to purge his mind of all thoughts, so he stays there, slowly falling to his knees under the outpour.

If only it would really be so easy, though.

He's shivering uncontrollably by the time he gets out of the shower, only to realise that towels is one thing he's completely forgotten to buy. Cursing himself while getting a sheet to dry himself with, he stumbles into the living room and there is first thing assaulted the memory of Atemu standing there, admitting that he likes the colour scheme, that it's warm.

For a moment Yugi just stands there, on the few steps leading from the slightly higher kitchen and dining space down to the lower living room, staring at the spot where Atemu had stood. For some reason the realisation that _Atemu_ 's been in his house takes just that moment to sink in – Atemu knows what the colour of the walls is, what the floor plan is like. Atemu even knows that Yugi has god damned hooks in his ceiling.

Why the hell had getting hooks in the ceiling seemed like such a good idea again?

Hissing curses at himself and still shivering, Yugi slowly falls to sit on the few wooden steps, clad only in a dark maroon sheet that's half soaked in cold water. He's panicking for some stupid reason but he can't stop it – his hands are shaking and his eyes are stinging and just _that very day_ Atemu had walked up these stairs, following Yugi's younger self as the teen had taken some posters to his room and god…. Yugi has a room in his house just for his younger self – which means that one day, probably sooner than he'd like, his younger self would sleep over. Which would mean that _Atemu_ would sleep over.

Having a panic attack on the stairs is probably not the most dignified thing, but that's just what Yugi does – he panics the hell out, his breath coming through his clenched teeth in wheezes and gasps and yet he can't seem to get enough air into his lungs. Lowering his head into his hands again, he squeezes his eyes shut and tries to breathe normally, before for some reason finding himself laughing once more in stuttering, awkward gulps that sound more like sobs than chuckles.

When it's over, he feels cold and hot all over and his heart is still pounding – and he no longer has the energy to try and fight the images in his head. Atemu and his own younger self look up at him from his memories and he can't look away.

Had he really looked like that when he had been younger? And had Atemu always been so…?

Sighing, Yugi leans backwards until he lands heavily on his back on the wooden floor. His _own_ last memories of Atemu, of the great pharaoh he had once been walking through the doorway in the tomb, are overlapping with the _other self_ of his own younger self. Atemu was and is and always had been so painfully beautiful – even when wearing Yugi's own body, he had brought into it some ethereal flair that Yugi himself always lacked.

It had been bad enough, to see it in the past when he had been completely unaware of his own feelings. But now? Now with more experience and a lot more idiocy behind him, when he's perfectly aware and so full of regret and so _desperate_ ….

"Maybe this really is hell," Yugi murmurs at the dark ceiling overhead and for a moment just lies there, legs hanging over the steps, clad in a soaked sheet and nothing more. "Or maybe this is limbo. And if it is then I am definitely going to hell after this."

And yet no matter how he tries to tell himself that – to tell himself that he's being not just stupid but disgusting, that really, really he ought to get a grip, move on, grow up, something… it doesn't help one bit.

"I need to get laid," he notes to the ceiling, shifting a bit where he lies. The floor is hard and a bit cold and he leaving wet puddles on it – and he's freezing too. That doesn't help any either.

He had been able to feel their _minds_. Their thoughts – even his younger self's – had been bleeding right into his own mind. He had felt them _in his head_.

And why does his younger self have to wear a collar anyway?

Closing his eyes, Yugi moves the soaked sheet out of the way. Giving into this idiocy won't help him any, he knows that, but hell… his body's betraying him, his heart betrayed him ten years ago, and his mind's succumbed to sheer insanity. There's no part of him that even cares at this point.

When he had been younger he had never paid that much attention to how Atemu looked when he was surprised or embarrassed or amused. Now each and every look seems to flash through Yugi's closed eyes, painfully detailed and only magnified by his own traitorous imagination and god he wants to touch Atemu _so much…._

It's awkward, more than a bit desperate – and more than a bit humiliating – but he barely has to work at it at all before he comes quicker and harder than he has _in years._ The orgasm leaves him weak and panting, and yet even that isn't enough to get Atemu from his head, if anything the spirit's face and expressions are only planted firmer behind Yugi's eye lids.

"Fucked," he chokes out while trying to even out his breathing and failing pathetically. He can't summon the strength to get up and clean himself so he just lets his hand drop on the floor, ignoring the stains he's leaving on the hardwood. "Ooh, I am so very, very fucked. Damn it…."

 Tomorrow – after buying some towels – he'd go out. There is a club nearby he used to frequent in the future, he'd go there. And he'd find someone. And, if everything worked out, he'd get laid. It would probably not be anywhere near enough to cure him of his own stupidity, but….

Maybe it'd be enough that he'd be able to keep it to himself.

And in the meantime he'd need to figure out at least a million excuses as to why his younger self could never _ever_ spend the night in his flat.


	24. Silence

Yugi follows his other self silently, unseen in the form of an intangible ghost. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had, after a poor night and a worse morning spent thinking in circles, suggested that maybe they ought to get out of the house for a while, get some fresh air and space to think. And since it had been the spirit's idea – and really, Yugi himself couldn't come up with anything better to do – Yugi had shifted to the background to let the spirit lead. It usually led them to interesting places, when the spirit got to choose.

"We probably shouldn't bother him first thing today," Yugi muses out loud, sighing as he looks in the direction of downtown, the way of his future-self's apartment building. Granted, from their district they'd need to take a bus to get there, but the building was still there, looming in the distance even if unseen.

 _'No, probably not,'_ the spirit agrees, hands in his pockets as he walks on along the street, idly glancing at store fronts and café advertisements. _'It's probably better we… be patient and leave him be for a while. He promised to come around, so let's wait for that.'_

Yugi sighs. He's normally pretty good with waiting, but somehow he's gotten impatient in the last months. Maybe it's because of the action packed days of BattleCity – things had been moving so fast then. Or maybe it's just that he's changing. And on top of that somehow it's almost impossible to just… _wait_ when it comes to his future self. The man seems so quick to change his mind – he's almost bipolar now that Yugi thinks about it – and he can't help but fear that given enough time, the man would choose to run off again or something.

Except he already had run off. Twice. This second time he is just being more successful at it than he had been the first.

 _'But we know where to find him,'_ the spirit points out. _'Even if he did… run off, we would find him. We're connected now.'_

"I guess we are," Yugi agrees, touching his chest and sighing. Connected through their hearts and souls. It sounds very poetic but in practice it's more awkward than anything – and maybe a bit painful. Especially considering what Grandpa had said. Three player game, as opposed to a two player game. And what they want to be to the future-Yugi – what they want future-Yugi to be to them.

What is the future-Yugi to them? Yugi's _second_ other self is an answer, but he knows it's not the right answer. And try as he might, he can't figure out any other answer. The future-him is just that. A future-him. There is a whole world of meaning in that concept… isn't there?

But it isn't about him. It's a three player game now. So, what is the man to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle? And what is Yugi to his future self – what is the spirit to the man? It would be so much easier if it was just _one_ connection and nothing else, but there are actually three of them between them. Or six, since every connection is different depending on which end you look at it from.

The more Yugi thinks about it, the more complex it gets.

 _'Maybe we should put this whole matter aside for a moment and just think of something else. Give our minds time to rest a while,'_ the spirit suggests, glancing at him. _'You're exhausted just by thinking about it and I could use a break too.'_

"You might be right about that," Yugi sighs again and then bounces to catch up with the spirit, getting close enough to wrap his hands around the spirit's elbow. Not that distraction would do them much good in the long run; the whole issue would still be there. But a break would be nice. "What do you suggest? A game of Duel Monsters maybe? I think there's an arcade with a Duel Platform nearby."

 _'Hmm… no, I don't think so. No, a new game would be better,'_ the spirit says, shifting his elbow just slightly so that Yugi can hook his own with it. _'Something neither of us has ever tried. I would like to try and figure a whole new game out.'_

Yugi smiles at that – marvelling not for the first time how lucky he is with the spirit, that they share the one exact same interest and delight. He can't even imagine what it would have been like if the spirit hadn't liked games just as much as he does, but he knows it wouldn't have been nearly so pleasant.

"The arcade's probably your best shot," Yugi says. "They might have something new there, though… they're probably not that high on strategy and all, being arcade games."

 _'There is that,'_ the spirit thinks frowning a bit and then pausing while staring down an alleyway just to the left of them. _'What is that?'_

Yugi follows his eyes and finds that there are some signs up in the alley too, a couple for bars and stuff like that. Then there is also one that includes a grid with white and black stones on it, with a sign saying Ono's Go Salon with opening hours and small text saying something about beginner lessons.

"Oh, a Go salon – I didn't know Domino had any of those. It's mostly all new and high tech games around here – I thought you'd be hard pressed to even find people around here, who play old games like that," Yugi murmurs, peering curiously at the sign before looking at the spirit. "It's a game we don't know, though. And one that has a lot of strategy in it, I guess."

 _'Let's have a look then,'_ the spirit says, while rummaging through Yugi's pockets idly. _'Salons require an entry fee, don't they… did we bring our wallet?'_

"I moved it in the inner pocket," Yugi answers, giving the jacket the spirit is wearing an admiring look. It had cost his future self quite a bit and the man had not been happy about it – but it looks pretty damn good if Yugi says so himself. Though it probably looks better on the spirit than it does on Yugi, the spirit just carries himself better, but still… it's a really fine jacket.

 _'Right. Well then,'_ the spirit says, after checking that the wallet is indeed there. They head for the alleyway entrance under the sign and then inside, where there is a stairwell leading to other places – a bar, a somewhat shady hair salon, a masseurs office of some sort, and finally the Go Salon which is on the second floor – and filled to the brim with smoke.

"You lost, kid?" an old, grey haired woman behind the counter asks, flicking a bit off ash from her cigarette at him. She looks the spirit up and down and sneers a bit. "The hair-salon's downstairs. Or if you're looking for a bar, I'll let you know that Jack's place isn't open and he doesn't like kids."

"No, I'm not looking for those places. This is a Go salon, right? I saw the sign and…" the spirit trails away, looking around them while Yugi does the same. The atmosphere in the place isn't quite what he had expected – the few customers in the place look rather grumpy and they _all_ seem to be smoking. But they _are_ playing Go….

"Well, in that case," the woman says, taking out a book. "Name and rank here, and that'll be seven hundred and fifty yen."

"Rank?" the spirit asks curiously while Yugi leans in to look at the book. It's a list of customers apparently, with names and something called Kyu ranks after them.

The old woman gives him a look. "You have played Go before, right?"

"No," the spirit says and then takes the pen. "But you’ve got to start somewhere," he says, writing down _Mutou Yugi_ in handwriting that is nothing like Yugi's own. Somehow and for some reason the spirit's always had a more… expansive handwriting – the kanji looks almost like pictures when he draws them. "Any suggestions on how to start?"

"In a kindergarten and with a rule book," the woman scoffs. "This ain't the place for beginners, kid."

"Oh, don't be like that, Ono," one of the customers says from somewhere behind Yugi and the spirit. One of the older men is coming over, smiling widely. "I haven't had an opponent all morning. I'll give the kid a couple lessons."

"If you say so," the old woman says with a shake of her head while the spirit turns to face the older male.

"The name's Kato, kid," the man says, motioning to one of the empty tables. "Come over here and I'll show you the basics. You never played before, right?"

"Never," the spirit says, and curiously follows the older man while Yugi trails after them.

He has to hand it to the spirit. In his place Yugi himself would've been something of a nervous wreck. The place is… shadier than he had assumed it would be, and the smoke too. And all the people in the place look so hostile, scowling at each other – even Kato, for all his smiles, looks like he's more used to frowning at people. And there is a sort of oppressive silence over all the games too, over the whole place, with people sending glares in Kato's and the spirit's direction whenever they say anything.

It's nothing like how Yugi's used to playing games – and if it had been just him, he would've been out of the place as fast as he can.

Not the spirit though. He sits down with all ease and ignores all the glares and pointed clearings of throats and just concentrates on his teacher and the large, blank game board between them. Yugi, even while trying to do the same as he stands behind his companion, is still aware of all the hostility aimed their way, not to mention about the quiet chuckles and snorts.

 _'Calm down, partner. It is fine,'_ the spirit thinks at him without looking up. _'Forget them and just concentrate on the game board.'_

"Alright. Sorry," Yugi says and looks down, where Kato is explaining how to capture stones and territory. He can't help but wonder how his older self would handle this type of situation, though. Would he even bother to visit a place like this? Maybe. The man makes games for a living so maybe places like this offer valuable insight or something. If he ever did visit a salon like this, Yugi can't see him being bothered by the looks or the smoke or anything.

But then, his future self is different from him.

Go turns out to be simpler and far more intricate than Yugi had ever assumed. He had though it was like checkers or maybe a bit like chess, but it's nothing like either of those two games – Go is a whole different game. The spirit of course grasps the rules in no time at all, asking a couple of pointed questions about certain types of situations in the game which make their teacher look up with surprise – and then, with barely ten minutes of tutoring behind him, the spirit decides he wants to play.

"Well, alright then. Just put down a few handicap stones and we'll have a go at it," Kato says.

"Handicap?" the spirit asks, sounding insulted.

"Hey, this isn't an easy game for starters and if you think beginners luck will help you, you'll have another thing coming. This is a game of skill and experience," Kato says with a scowl. "Without a handicap you have no chance against me."

"All the easier for you, then, isn't it?" the spirit asks with a smug little smirk that Kato's scowl only grow worse while Yugi sighs. He likes the spirit, he really does, and he respects the spirit's ability with games – but they'd get in a lot less trouble if the spirit was a bit less smug about it.

It's too late now, though. "Fine then. We'll see how you deal with it," the old man says. "Nigiri."

"What?" the spirit asks.

"It's a way to choose who gets to go first. Just grab a handful of stones and put them on the board, and I put down either one or two stones depending on whether I think the number of your stones comes out odd or even. If I get it right, I get the black stones," Kato explains with a roll of his eyes.

"Fine," the spirit says with that little smirk in place, and they both grab some stones – which end with Kato getting the black stones while the spirit gets the white ones.

"You know what you're doing here?" Yugi asks carefully as the two exchanges the stone bowls and Kato practically slams down a black stone.

 _'Ah, well. This is not an important game and there is nothing at stake. I'm just having fun,'_ the spirit answers while placing down a stone.

Yugi sighs, resting his hands on the spirit's shoulders and leaning in to watch the game. "Someday you having fun will end us in a world of trouble," he muses, though he has to admit, watching the spirit play, no matter what the game he's playing, is never boring.

Neither is this one. Though Yugi hadn't been paying attention to the explanation of rules and tactics, he soon figures them out as the game progresses before him, starting with a handful of stones scattered all across the board which turn into complex clusters. The spirit had grasped the game quickly indeed, judging by the look on their opponent's face – Kato's going from irritated to annoyed to furious as the spirit navigates through the game board, learning more as he plays and getting stronger hand by hand.

And to think there are people who dispute their claim to the title of King of Games. Though to most people it's only a title relating to Duel Monsters, Yugi knows better. There is a reason as to why Pegasus had chosen that particular title for the winner of the DuellistKingdom winner. And DuellistKingdom had never really been just about Duel Monsters anyway – it had been about power and ability, be it corporate or monetary or magical. And most of all, it had been about the Millennium Puzzle, and its ownership.

And they had proven themselves – and not just against Pegasus, but against the darker part of Bakura before then and against the darker part of Marik after that. Three other Millennium Item holders, and Yugi and the spirit had beaten them all at _their_ games.

Smiling faintly to himself while his soul's companion slowly but steadily gains more and more ability, understanding and ground on the game board, Yugi wonders whether his future self still retains the same ability. He still is interested in games, seeing that he makes them. But can he, like the spirit and like Yugi himself, figure them out the first time he plays them?

 _'I wonder what my future self is doing…'_ Yugi hums to himself, resting his chin on the spirit's hair as his companion, inevitably, wins the game.


	25. Illusion

"That bastard," Seto murmurs to himself while scrolling through the code flashing through his computer screen. They had finally managed to extract all the data from Yuto's phone, not just the added bits of personal files but programming and the operating system and the bios – along with the files of the various games and programs in the phone and from some of those Seto had found something… annoying.

Yugi Mutou's name.

Not in all of the programs, no, but in some of the games – actually, in a _lot of the games_. Seto had been wondering why his future self would just _give_ a phone like that to Yuto – it makes no sense and he would never just give someone something, not unless he gains something from it… or the person is Mokuba, which Yuto definitely isn't. Now, though….

According to the programming, Yuto had been working on pretty much all of the hologram mini games and had had a big part in designing the operating system of the Duel Network – the internet based Duel Monsters variant where people bought, traded and kept their cards online and then played the game through their computers and, more often than not, their phones. And, judging by the data, the man had designed the game of _Manifes_ pretty much alone – and according to the data, the game had something like sixty thousand users in the future.

True, there had been dozens of programmers involved with pretty much all the games and not just Yuto but the fact is that Yuto _had_ been involved…. And the bastard hadn't told Seto, hadn't said a word of it.

Though maybe Seto should have figured that Yuto would be holding out on him. Minamoto Yuto was a whole different man from Mutou Yugi, Seto had seen as much in their duel, and the further Seto goes into the project of unravelling the KCM-2010, the more proofs he gets of it. Considering those differences between the two… yes, it's not that far-fetched that the man _would_ hold out on him. But it _is_ irritating.

Because even though Seto has all the program code wide open before him, there are things about it he's not sure how to deal with – the biggest issue being the programming language used in a lot of the mini games and in the Duel Network. It's like nothing he's ever seen – and somehow the programming crashed two computers when they tried to read it. It comes out a garbled mess on the computer screen even now, a chaotic mess of symbols and numbers that seem to form no recognisable patterns what-so-ever, not to mention command chains or anything of the sort.

All the hologram games are like that, and what’s worse, so are the platform programs that support them.

It could be that the mess of code is due to the fact that they currently don't have the programs to actually read the programming, so when they do try the code comes out messy, but… Seto can't help but feel that there is more to it. Some key he's missing. And though Seto's sure he and his techies _can_ crack the code, eventually…. It's a bit trying to solve a word Puzzle in an alien language. They might be able to do it, but there are nuances they're missing.

As much as he hates to even admit it… he might need Yuto on the project if he wants to remake the games on the phone. Even if the man isn't a programmer himself, he obviously has some familiarity with the programs, familiarity which Seto desperately needs. Had the bastard realised it? Maybe. Probably, considering his unspoken contribution to the programs. And the man hadn't said anything, knowing that Seto would eventually come to the conclusion himself….

Though sure, of course Seto can just ignore all the data and start from the scratch. He already has hologram programs he can start with: the operating system of the old duel platforms and of the Duel Disks. They don't quite apply to the phone, but they're a base to start from and he has the time. They're still working out the kinks with the phone, the reverse engineering of the technology itself is not going quite as smoothly as he would like. Even with the simplest aspects they're completely over their heads and the most complicated bits - like the way the h-pad is ingrained into phone – will take even more work. On the whole, the process would take months if not years. He has the time.

He's not sure if he has the patience, though. As big of a gold mine as the technological aspects of the phone are, the programs have the potential of being a larger one – a lot of them can be applied to a lot more than just a phone. Seto's under no false impressions about being able to truly dominate the global market with the phone and its gadgets, even if he applies the advances to other technologies.

The head start he'll get won't last forever – his rivals and other tech companies would be reverse engineering and drawing upon what he made as soon as they could, and soon pushing through their own models – which would eventually lead to decline in sales and so on. The market would even out, and he would lose the monopoly position.

Intellectual property though… Seto could make his fortune once again if he could patent just a _few_ of these programs. Which he of course can do even now, but… for one, he does _not_ want to become part of the dot-com bubble and for two… even if he can patent the programs, he can't actually _remake them_. The best he can currently do is copy the programs and the games, which then would mean nothing because he doesn't have the servers and their programming to run the online aspects of them.

Sighing in irritation, the CEO of Kaiba Corp stands up and walks away from his computer and to the window. Yuto must've known it all or at least guessed at some of it. Or maybe he hadn't and just ignored it all, leaving Seto with the problems involved. Either way, it is the man's fault somehow and Seto is perfectly willing to blame him for it all.

He's wondering if the phone, as valuable as it is, is worth the headaches he's getting because of it, when the door to his office opens with a mechanical hiss. "Any luck?" Mokuba asks, coming inside.

"No more than before. Did you find out what I need to know?" Seto asks, glancing at his little brother over his shoulder.

"Of course I did," the kid says with a smug grin and comes over, holding out a printed paper. "He's been busy - bought himself a flat just a day after meeting with you. I also found out that he's gotten a new phone, here's the number."

"Good work," Seto nods, taking the paper and looking it. It doesn't just have the address to Yuto's new flat, but also specifics about the flat – and where he had bought furniture. Seto has to smile at that. "Show off," he says to his brother.

Mokuba just shrugs with a cheeky smile before turning serious. "I pulled some security feeds too, from one of the stores he visited. He _really_ does look like Yugi, doesn't he?"

"Who did you expect him to look like, the mutt?" Seto asks, looking over the paper again. "What is he doing right now?" he then asks, wondering if he ought to give the man a call just then and there and get the thing over with.

"Buying a lot of very weird stuff," Mokuba says, folding his arms.

"Weird how?" Seto asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Weird like… well. He bought eight pairs of handcuffs for a start. From a private security retail store – really high quality too, I mean, cops don't have stuff as good as he bought. And there was other stuff too," Mokuba says, looking a bit curious. "Like a hundred meters of this really expensive rope and something like seventeen belts? Also a lot of stuff that was just called binding gear on the receipts. I can probably get a full detail list of all the things he bought if you want it, though."

 _Eight_ pairs of… "No," the CEO of Kaiba Corp says quickly, his eyes widening a bit. "No, that's alright, just ignore all of that and stop the surveillance. Whatever he's doing, it has nothing to do with us," he adds.

"Are you sure?" Mokuba asks, rocking a bit on his heels. "Because he went somewhere yesterday night and I couldn't track where he went and –"

"Yes, I'm sure. Pull all the surveillance, and stop monitoring his purchases. So long as I know where to find the man, I'm satisfied," Seto says, giving his brother a closer look just to make sure the kid doesn't actually realise what the stuff meant. _'Thank god,'_ he thinks when Mokuba just shrugs his shoulders with confused disinterest, obviously oblivious.

"Alright then," Mokuba says, and pushes his hands into his vest pockets. "Are you going to get him, though? For the project?"

"… No," Seto answers. He probably does need the man on the project but… maybe not right now. Even if they've run into something of a wall as far as the programming goes, they're not at a dead end yet. He'd give his techies a couple more days to try and figure out the programming, look into it himself a bit more closely. And if they got nowhere….

"No. No, not before I've exhausted all my options," Seto says, decision made, and takes the sheet of paper to his desk. "For now we will keep at the project as we have and only if it's absolutely necessary will we bring him into it. So let's forget Yuto for now and concentrate on trying to crack the programming language."

"Right," the kid says, coming to look at the screen where the computer code is still being displayed. "Any luck with it?"

"Not with the hologram programs, no, but with the rest… some of them use languages I know. It's a bit different and a whole lot more complicated than most things I've seen, but that's to be expected. It just goes to show it is what he said it is," Seto murmurs, sitting back down again. "What we're seeing is ten years’ worth of advancement in computer science and programming, and that on top of computing power that competes and even beats what current super computers are capable of – and it came from a mobile phone."

"A good buy then," Mokuba comments.

"A cheap buy too," Seto says, shaking his head. If it had been him, he would've asked at least ten times as much as Yuto had, maybe more. Though he has to hand it to the man, the shares hadn't been a bad addition. "The sooner we crack it and the sooner we can reverse engineer the phone, the better," Seto muses, leaning back on his seat. "There's one problem though."

"Hm?" his brother asks, frowning.

"As good as my people are, this isn't the sort of technology Kaiba Corp is used to," Seto has to admit through gritted teeth. For the last year his company has been concentrating on hologram technology almost single-mindedly – and then they hand reaped the rewards of that dedication, of course. This though… as much hologram technology as there is in the phone, there is also a whole lot more to it. Image capture tech isn't their speciality, and the phone has two advanced cameras. Kaiba Corp has next to no experience with monitors and screens, and the phone has _a touch sensitive_ screen.

As tricky as the programming is, they have better chances of cracking it than they have reverse engineering the sensitive electronics.

"I think… I need to hire some specialists," Seto finally admits. What he needs to do is seduce the best scientific minds and technological experts away from their respective cosy jobs at whatever companies they're associated with and tempt them to join him. Which wouldn't be hard, with this sort of plum to offer to them. It would have its own problems, though, but those he could handle easy enough.

No. He doesn't need Yuto's help, not as long as he has other resources at his disposal. He would look into other options, other specialists, gag everyone involved to the gills with confidentiality contracts and _only_ if that wouldn't get him where he wanted to go, then he might involve Yuto.

Ignoring the nagging thought at the back of his head – that his own future self must've had a reason for involving Yuto in the projects in the first place – Seto turns to his brother. "Sorry about pulling you away from your project. How is that going anyway?"

"It's going good," his brother grins. "The ground work's been laid out and the building will start at the end of the month, as long as the weather holds. And if everything goes according to plans, and it should, we can open our first KaibaLand before the end of the year."

Seto smirks at that. "Opening just in time for Christmas, hm? How ambitious of you, Mokuba," he says. "I'll be looking forward to it."


	26. Stars

Mai's not entirely sure what she's still doing in the Domino. She really ought to have already left the city, taken a hike shortly after the end of BattleCity, headed somewhere else, somewhere new. And if not that, then she ought to have looked for better accommodations than the hotel she's currently staying at – it's eating all her money and as things stand now, there's no new cash on the horizon.

Not unless she decides to actually try and find a job.

 _'Things were easier when Pegasus was still around,'_ she muses somewhat morosely. Pegasus had had a thing for throwing silly, extravagant tournaments with grand prizes – mostly it was all for publicity for him, as a way to advertise Duel Monsters, but for people like her… it had been a way to make a living. If not as a winner then just as a semi famous figure – Pegasus had occasionally hired people like her to take part in his tournaments, though she has no illusions about _why_ he had done that.

Beauty sells – and it even sells trading cards, it turns out.

Nowadays though, there are only the odd championship tournaments and the tournament season is pretty much over for the year – Kaiba's BattleCity had closed it with grand old style. And what's left for people like one Kujaku Mai to look forward to? Boredom, boredom, boredom and _unemployment_ for the rest of the year.

 _'Well. If nothing else, Domino is the most likely place for me to find work easily,'_ the woman thinks to herself, while wandering out of her hotel room and to the balcony. Looking down at the streets below her, she has to smile. The sky is getting dark and as it does, the city starts to glow.

Domino is a relatively new city, but it reminds her of some of the very old and very large ones she's seen – actually, in an odd way, it reminds her a lot of Las Vegas. Domino is nowhere near as big, maybe, but it has some of the same atmosphere. It's not the gambling, though Domino does have its share of that. It's more the games and the entertainment, and just the way people live in the city. Domino has a different heart-beat, when compared to rest of Japan.

It beats with the time of turns taken, cards played, dice rolled, with wins and losses and luck. And maybe that's why she doesn't want to leave. Domino is nothing like her home town and nothing like the many places she's lived, but it feels like it. It feels… familiar. And Mai feels _herself_ there.

And yeah, it would be… nice to stay. She's learned a lot about the city while running around during BattleCity, and become comfortable with the main streets and the back alleyways - and she's maybe a bit more familiar than she likes with the local hospitals and the like. Staying… wouldn't be bad – if anything it'd be easy. Thanks to BattleCity she was pretty well known in Domino even outside those circles where Duel Monsters was well known. People would be likely to hire her just for that little bit of fame, even if she had come nowhere close to winning.

Sighing, she turns her eyes upwards. The sky is cloudless, but Domino produces just enough light pollution that she can't see many stars yet. Maybe, once it got darker, but even then most of them would be hidden. That would be a bit of a bummer, to be honest, if she decides to stay. She likes watching the stars but then again, she can always just venture out of the city for stargazing….

And by stars, is she bored. Not that she hadn't needed the downtime and that she isn't goddamn grateful that Battle City is over and that Marik Ishtar is out of the town – oh she is so very grateful – but…. She's not the sort of woman to linger in the past and now that BattleCity is there, in the past, and there is nothing to look forward to in the foreseeable future….

 _'That's one reason as to why I shouldn't stay here. It's boring,'_ she thinks and then sighs at herself, bowing her head. Of course it is boring – she hasn't much left her room for days, except to do a bit of shopping. There might be a whole world of Domino style nightlife out there, which she hasn't as much as taken a glance at.

 _'There's a thought,'_ she muses and looks down at the streets again. She knows Domino has some night clubs and what not, it even has a bit of a _culture_ going on if the rumours are correct. Which, honestly saying, wouldn't surprise her that much considering that people that live in the place – Domino is full of weirdoes, and with a person like Kaiba standing on top of them all….

There could be who knows what sort of entertainments out there, while she's being holed up in her room, whining about how boring it is.

"Well, no more," Mai decides. She's been acting like a hermit for long enough and it's getting tiresome. She needs to shake away the meekness that's come over her and the shadows of BattleCity and live it up a little. "Yup," she nods at that and then turns to head inside, to get some clothes.

Later, after asking the hotel staff about places to go and how to get there, she finds herself examining the nightlife of Domino. Now that she looks for it, she's finds that really, there is no shortage there. There is actually a rather popular bar right next to the hotel she's been staying at – and not far from it, she finds a night club, filled to the brim with artificial smoke and extremely loud music.

"This is a bit more like it," she muses and heads inside.

Despite how weird people are in Domino, in general the men there are not much different from the way they are elsewhere Mai finds a bit later, wondering if she maybe should have worn something else than her favourite tube top after the fourth rather thinly veiled boob ogling session by some mumbling idiot. And apparently, "Do you come here often" is considered a perfectly suitable opening comment for discussion in Domino's nightclubs.

After only a couple of drinks and a rather disappointing spin on the dance floor, Mai heads out of that particular nightclub and sets out to find some other one – preferably one with clientele a bit older than eighteen to twenty. She visits another place and then quickly flees it after one earful of the most horrible seventies dance music imaginable. The next place is nothing more than a bar, but the music is soothing and the staff is nice so she spends a moment there, recovering from the seventies, before heading out again, now curious about what else Domino has to offer.

How she ends up in that particular club, she's not sure – a wrong turn somewhere and a surprisingly nice doorman with a wide, warm smile has something to do it. But in the end, she finds herself in the shadiest club yet – where the music is breathy with a deep beat, and where people are not shy about their skin. And what they cover… they cover in rather _interesting_ ways.

It takes her a long moment to stop gawking like an idiot at one young woman who is almost gently twisting the hair of a blindfolded man who kneeling, gagged and bound, at her feet. And then, when she manages to look away, her stare stops on another pair, a tall man who wears nothing but latex it seems, and a woman sitting in his lap with a dog collar around her neck, the leash of which is twisted in his fingers.

Trying as she might, she can't convince herself to get a grip, not quite. Though it's not like Mai’s never seen stuff like that, she's just… never seen it this close up.

"Hey there," the bartender grins at her when she more or less stumbles over to get something to drink. "First time at the Whiplash?"

"That obvious, huh?" she asks with an embarrassed laugh. Whiplash? _That_ is the place's name?

"A bit yeah. And very few wear white here," the man says, nodding at her jacket while pouring a drink and handing it over. "On the house for the first timer, house policy," he says with a friendly smile. "Breathe lady and take it easy. We're nice people here. Really. And no one's ever gotten bitten here… unless they wanted to, of course."

"Reassuring," she laughs a bit nervously and takes a quick drink. "On a scale from one to ten, how bad is it to stare?"

"Here? Not too bad," the bartender says, grinning. "Most people come here to be stared at – or to get those they come with stared at. But if someone starts glaring at you then you know you're stepping on their toes and should probably pay attention to something else."

"Alright, good to know," Mai says and then takes another look around.

This club is a lot emptier than the ones she had stumbled into, and quieter – though the music is there, it's not oppressively loud, and the focus is elsewhere. It's also differently designed. The club has a stage and most of the floor is taken by tables – there is very little if any empty floor space. The people in the club, of whom there are maybe only thirty all together, seem perfectly satisfied just to sit around the tables and talk among themselves. Or sit on the floor and _not_ talk. Or move. Or do much anything as far as she can tell.

"It's a quiet night today, being the middle of the week," the bartender says, while Mai lets herself take in one woman's rather impressive looking corset-straps-sort-of-skirt-but-not-quite get up. "Give it an hour or so and more people will start trickling in.

"Do you get a lot of customers?" Mai asks curiously.

"More than people think," the bartender says, grinning before turning to attend to a long haired man with lot of piercings and collar around his neck so thick that Mai has to wonder if he can even turn his head. Then she notices that the woman the man had been sitting with is glaring at her, and quickly looks away.

Warming up to the place a bit, Mai gets another drink and then finds a better vantage point where she can observe the bar without being too obvious about it, taking off her jacket and folding it over her knees. No one here seems to mind a bit of skin after all.

As she watches, chatting idly with the bartender whenever he has the time, more people trickle in. Very few come alone, most coming in pairs or in groups, and soon Mai starts picking up traits in them. The pairs of doms and subs are of course obvious, but there are other people too – and _lot_ of what Mai assumes are unattached subs, men and women alike.

Very few unattached doms, though. Actually, _none_ as far as she can tell.

The bartender seems to know most everyone in the club – and though he gives no names and no details, he tells Mai a bit about them, how long someone's been coming in and a bit what they were like. Most everyone in the club seems to be comfortable with each other and despite the amount of doms in the room, there are no flares of temper – the biggest conflict Mai sees is one female dom slapping a sub and forcing him to the ground, which is met with mingled approval and disapproval from the group she's sitting with.

"That's a new one," the bartender comments idly, he too looking disapproving. "She's a bit too aggressive and if she doesn't watch out, that'll cost her."

"How so?" Mai asks, curious.

"There's a lot more to it than showing force," he says, shaking his head, and goes to pour some drinks.

When _he_ walks in, Mai isn't sure, she loses track of time watching one pair – two absolutely _gorgeous_ women, one of whom is caressing the other's face with her long fingernails while the sub looks close to purring – but then, suddenly, he's just _there_. And Mai isn't sure how, but it seems like the whole club shifts a bit because of it, the atmosphere tensing a bit.

"Ah, he's here again," the bartender murmurs, and Mai's heart skips a beat as she turns to look.

 _'What the hell, is that –?!'_ she starts, opening her mouth and almost calling out before her brain catches up with her.

The _hair_ is almost – no, it is _exactly_ like Mutou Yugi's. But the guy is entirely too tall to be Yugi, isn't he? Yes, he is, definitely – not to mention the fact that the guy is older, all grown up. The likeness is so canny it's close to creepy and Mai feels a bit uncomfortable for some reason – because despite how Yugi dresses, the idea of him in a BDSM club….

"Who is he?" Mai asks under her breath, leaning her elbows on the counter and trying not to stare so obviously. It's hard not to, though. There is something about the man – aside from the creepy familiarity – that makes it hard not to stare. The tight leather trousers, the black top, the jewellery… why does he have a grey hanky around his left bicep? It really doesn't go too well with the rest of the adornments.

"No idea. He's new," the bartender says, watching the man with interest. "Seems like he has a plan tonight."

"A plan?" Mai asks, but the bartender is already turning away, to tend to some other customers.

Shaking her head, Mai turns to watch the guy - who can't be Mutou Yugi, can't, thank god. He might be new to the club, maybe, but obviously not new to the scene. The way the man stands, the way he looks around, it's obvious what he is. And though Mai's only been watching the doms and subs for a little while and is only starting to barely tell the differences in interaction, even she can see that the man is after something. Very _obviously_ on the prowl.

Mai is not the only audience the man has. Some of the other doms – especially the ones Mai's staring to call the new doms in her head – are watching him cautiously. And then there are the subs – especially the unattached ones. Some of them are in turns looking at him and then away whenever he looked back – others are outright staring, whispering to each other, considering.

Relaxing a bit now that she's very sure that the man isn't Yugi – maybe Yugi's fan, or who knows, maybe he and Yugi had gotten the idea for their hair from the same source – Mai settles down to watch the man, nursing her drink absently. As she watches, the guy looks around for a while before approaching one more relaxed party without any hint of hesitation, and talks for a moment with the doms before sitting down among them and striking up a conversation.

And that looks like it's all he does, which Mai has to admit is a bit boring for a Yugi-look-alike. But then – and really, it doesn't take that long – the group is approached by a pair of women – subs who had entered just a little before the man had. While the other woman – tall with pale brown hair in braids – hangs in the back, a woman a bit younger than Mai with short red hair says something to the Yugi-look-alike, motioning at the hanky on his arm.

"So," Mai leans in a bit as the bartender comes close enough again. There's something happening in the group, they got a lot more animate when the little redhead had walked over and it almost looks like the man and the redhead are… negotiating something? "What's going on now?"

"Hm. Something interesting maybe," the bartender says and walks right away again, to get a closer look.

Interesting doesn't even _begin_ to cover it. Maybe ten minutes of negotiations later, the Yugi-look-alike heads out, while the pretty little redhead heads to the _stage_. The bartender then turns on the stage lights and – are they – yes. Yes they are.

"So, uh. What's happening _now_?" Mai asks, fascinated, as the pretty redhead idly removes her necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

"They're going to do a scene," the bartender says. "Good thing too – we had nothing scheduled for today and it doesn't seem like any of our more active doms are coming around. It'll be nice to see something new."

"A… scene?"

"Yeah. Just watch, my lady in white. We might just get a treat."

And so she watches. The man with hair just like Mutou Yugi's comes over, carrying on his shoulder a leather bag. While the people in the bar murmur and begin to trickle to sit by the tables closer to the stage, the look-alike exchanges words with the woman who says something back. A pillow is set in the middle of the stage, just where everyone can see it.

Then, the music changes – into something simpler and yet more melodic, with no beat involved. Talking seems to cease in the club almost completely, as the man takes the woman by hand and then guides her to stand, facing towards the audience. And he really does guide her, hands stroking all over her body without any hesitation or shyness, running up and down, moving her arms just as he likes, shifting the way she stands, even positioning her head and chin. Like so, he trails down her, hands running over her breasts and down her stomach, over her thighs and down, where removes her knee high boots.

Mai's mouth goes a bit dry as she watches the man move up again, growing only ever bolder. The woman, if she minds it, shows no sign of it – if anything, she sways into his motions as the man opens the buttons of her tight blouse, revealing pale skin and blood red satin bra. She might not have much there, Mai muses, but what she has she wears _well._

And oh, the guy is really not shy about touching. It's somehow not awkward though. If Mai had seen someone else being, well, groped like the redhead is, it would've been awkward, but the way he does it is not greedy or forceful or… well, it's not awkward either. It's more… worshiping.

Then he has her skirt off too, and the girl stands, clad only in her matching satin underwear. It's only for a moment, though, and then the guy is guiding her backwards and down to the cushion where she kneels, looking a bit woozy for a moment.

And then the look-alike takes out the rope.

"Oh," Mai murmurs, and leans in. While the redhead shivers on the pillows, waiting, the man twists the dark red rope into coils and then kneels down beside the girl to start applying it. Starting with her ankles and moving on from there – at first it looks a bit awkward and feeble, but he layers it, bit by bit, weaving it into itself. Mai loses track of the coils and suddenly, the woman's wrist is tied to the rope, just beside her thigh, with the rope – about as thick as her thumb – coiling almost blood red around her pale wrist.

And then the same is done to the girl's other leg and hand, and before Mai realises it, the girl is bound and helpless and just sitting there, with the strangest look on her face.  She is struggling, just a bit, against the binding and the look… she looks almost drugged. The Yugi-look-alike looks over her with obvious satisfaction and stands up, the rest of the rope still in his hand. For a moment the man just stands behind the woman with the blood red rope in his hands, before forming another coil and slowly, god, _so slowly_ looping it around her neck.

The whole audience seems to hold their breath as the man uses the rope the pull the girl's head back and when she lets out a choked little moan, Mai feels a bit like moaning with her.

Yeah. That guy, whoever it is, is _definitely_ nothing like Mutou Yugi.

 


	27. Drowning

It has been three days since the future-Yugi had moved out and since then there had been no sight or sound of the man. Frowning to himself in irritation, Yugi glared over his room to the Duel Monsters calendar hanging by his door. On top of three days missed, it was only another three days until the fall term would begin – three days until the end of summer holidays.

"Patience," the spirit says from beside him, where he stands leaning against the window frame, but even he sounds agitated.

"Tch," Yugi answers. "And while we patiently wait for him, he patiently ignores that we even exist, I bet," he mutters, his glare turning into a scowl. His future self had run away – and they had let him. And now the gap between them is growing bigger every moment – and god only knows what the man is even doing. Getting a passport and buying tickets out of country, for all they know.

"No, I am not going to sit here and just _wait_ anymore," Yugi decides. It's a bit late – he had been sure that his future self would come by that day so he had just let the day trickle by, and yeah, it's maybe a bit too late to be visiting but _hell_ if he cares. It's been _three days_. His future self deserves the inconvenience of a late visit at this point.

Standing up, Yugi walks to the closet to get something to wear – taking the spirit's silence as the sign of agreement it is. It's not like waiting has agreed with the spirit any better than it had agreed with him, the spirit was just better at distracting himself, Yugi muses, and shrugs on the leather jacket his future self had bought for him, before heading out of the room.

"Grandpa! I'm going out," he calls as he passes by the living room where his grandfather is watching the television.

"At this hour?" Sugoroku asks, glancing up and then smiling somewhat grimly. "Going to see your future self, then?"

"He’s ticking me off," Yugi mutters while adjusting his collar. "I am going to give him a piece of my mind. And make sure he hasn't, I don't know, starved himself to death or something."

"Alright then. Tell him I'm not too happy about him not coming around either," Sugoroku says, turning back to the TV. "You be careful out there, it's late. And _you_ take care of Yugi, spirit."

"I will, Grandfather," the spirit answers, even though Sugoroku can't hear it.

"He says he will, Grandpa," Yugi says for him, rolling his eyes. It's almost like he hasn't been living in Domino _all his life_ and managed to survive perfectly fine up until then. Well. Mostly fine anyway. "I might stop by the store on my way back, do you need anything?"

"No, thank you. Do you have enough money for the bus there and back?"

"Yeah, I think so. See you later, Grandpa!" With that said, Yugi heads to the hall and picks up his – or the spirit's, since future Yugi had technically bought them for him – shoes before sitting down on the stairs to pull them on. Then, after a glance at a mirror and a moment spent adjusting the buckle of his collar, Yugi heads down the stairs, the spirit floating after him.

"In hindsight, we could have just called him," the spirit points out as they head for the nearest bus stop.

 _'In hindsight,_ he _could've just called us,'_ Yugi answers cuttingly and then shakes his head. _'Sorry, my other self. It's just that… I'm worried about him. And annoyed with him. And… and I just don't like him avoiding us – which is exactly what he's been doing, you know.'_

"Yeah, I know," the spirit says, lifting a hand and resting it on Yugi's lower back. "It doesn't make me exactly happy either. But I can't help but think that he won't appreciate us intruding like this."

 _'It's not intruding! I have a room in his flat. How can I intrude in a place where I have my own room?'_ Yugi asks with a laugh.

He has to wait for a long while for the bus, and it doesn't take him directly to his future self's house, but the walk from the bus stop to the building gives him time to cool off a bit, and take a look around. For all that the traffic is busier and there are more people in the district where his future self lives, it is actually, oddly enough, a bit more peaceful than where Yugi himself lives – the neighbourhood is somewhat wealthier.

 _'You know, now that I think about it, he moved into a pretty nice place,'_ Yugi muses, looking around himself as he walks, up to the buildings. There are a lot of old ones like the one where his future self lives, but they're _nice_ looking old buildings, well-kept and in good condition. And all the new buildings among them are really nice too, all well designed and fancy.

"Yeah, I suppose," the spirit answers somewhat noncommittally.

 _'You don't like it?'_ Yugi asks, curious.

"I don't like how little you can see of the sky. Though it's different at his flat, since it sees over most of the other buildings easily," the spirit shrugs.

Yugi's eyebrows rise a bit at that – the spirit's never said anything like that before. _'It… feels claustrophobic to you? I didn't know that.'_

"Well. Not claustrophobic. Just… crowded maybe. It just feels like the buildings are in the way, is all," his other self says, looking at him with a smile. "I like how it is at the store – from your room I can watch the sunrise without any trouble."

That surprises Yugi even more. Sure, he knows his window has a pretty nice view down the street, and that the morning sun had an annoying tendency of shining right into his room, but… "You can? I mean, you do that? Watch the sunrise?"

The spirit just shrugs in answer and then looks up as they arrive at the future Yugi's building. Yugi looks up as well and then, making a mental note to ask the spirit about sunrises later, he quickly heads for the entrance, and inside. The ride up in the elevator has never seemed so long before.

There is no answer when he rings the doorbell – not the first and not the second time. Frowning a bit, Yugi glances at the spirit and then touches his chest. _'He is there, right?'_ he asks, pretty sure that he is feeling the connection right. He would've noticed if his future self was somewhere elsewhere.

"He is, I can feel him too," the spirit says, folding his arms. "But… it is late in the evening. He might be asleep. Maybe we shouldn't have --"

 _'He deserves a rude awakening and more,'_ Yugi answers determinedly and hits the doorbell the third time.

He's just about to hit it the fourth time before the door is practically thrown open. "This had better be _fucking_ important!" his future self growls and then stops at the sight of Yugi and the spirit. "Oh," the man says, his voice flat. "It's you two."

"Hi?" Yugi offers, his eyes wide with shock. His future self is shirtless and a bit out of breath, wearing only what looks like rather hastily donned pair of leather trousers. And it looks – no, his skin really _is_ glazed with sweat and some golden strands of hair have stuck against the dampness on his forehead. Yugi's first, and somewhat ridiculous, thought is that the man had been exercising, but… no. Of course not.

His future self closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and pushing his messy hair from his face with a slightly shaky hand. Then, looking only slightly steadier, he opens his eyes again. "Is there any chance I could convince you to go home and come back tomorrow?" he asks dryly.

"Well, uh. I sort of need to use the bathroom?" Yugi says, awkward and uneasy – his future self's feet are bare and his skin is gleaming and there's a certain smell coming from him – and it's freaking him out a bit. "A-and besides it's your own fault if we're interrupting something because _you_ haven't been around for three days now!" and god, he just said it out loud.

His future self takes another deep breath, leaning a bit against the door frame and looking like he'd like to bang his head against it. "Okay," he then says, apparently having made a decision. "Fine. _Whatever_. And fuck my life too," he grumbles turning away. "Use the main bathroom and for god's sake don't freak out."

"It's a bit too late for that," Yugi answers, and then stops in mid step, the spirit letting out a choked sound from behind him. "Wha –" Yugi starts to say, staring at his older self's rather impressively tattooed back, but the man's already down the hall and out of sight – judging by the sound of the door slamming, he's gone into the master bedroom.

Even more out of balance now, Yugi reaches to take the shocked spirit's hand and pull him into the flat before closing the door. "W-was that --?" the spirit asks, still looking down the hall, and Yugi can only shake his head as he toes off his shoes, a bit too freaked to say anything.

As he stumbles out of the hall and into the living room, he can hear muffled talking coming from the master bedroom and it doesn't help him with his freak out at all. After a moment of hesitation, Yugi practically runs across the living room and out of hearing range, into the main bathroom where he can only barely stop himself from slamming the door.

"Oh _man,"_ he murmurs, leaning against the bathroom door while the spirit gives him a somewhat startled look and quickly retreats to the Puzzle to give him _bathroom privacy_. "Maybe we really should've called ahead."

But, as he goes about his business, the pounding of his heart eases a bit. Okay, okay, so. He had sort of interrupted his future self while he was – well. Worse things have happened, and to him too, so it isn't the end of the world. And though future-Yugi had seemed pissed off, Yugi himself is still alive – and he hadn't gotten thrown out on his ass either – so the man is probably not going to kill him.

 _'Okay, okay, calm down,'_ he thinks, taking a breath and releasing it slowly. _'Stuff like this happens to people all the time and he's a guy, a twenty seven year old guy – it happens. Calm down.'_

The spirit says nothing, probably having no idea what to say to that, but Yugi does manage to relax a bit. And after he does he can't help but… get a bit curious. And maybe a bit annoyed because while he had been worrying and fretting, his future self had been fooling around with some --

And then, suddenly, it sort of hurts. While he and the spirit had been all anxious, his future self had been just playing around like absolutely nothing was wrong. Didn't the man care at all? And… why did it feel like….

Frowning and a bit confused now – confused and hurt and irritated – Yugi washes his hands quickly and then dries them off on a towel hanging by the sink before heading out. At first he considers going into his bedroom but the annoyance growing inside him makes him go to the living room instead. It's a bit awkward and embarrassing – but probably more so to his future self, and for all that Yugi doesn't want to know, he also really does.

 _'Partner?'_ the spirit asks tentatively from inside. _'Should I…?'_

 _'Come out,'_ Yugi thinks back, and then his companion is there, sitting beside him on the living room couch.

Judging by the sound of it, someone's in the private bathroom connected to the master bedroom. The door to the bedroom is tightly shut and Yugi can hear movement inside, probably the future-Yugi cleaning up. It's sort of awkward and annoying and Yugi's somewhere between being embarrassed and vindictive – and the more he thinks about it, the more he _really_ wants to give his future self a piece of his mind, for worrying him, and for… for _this_.

"You should probably calm down a bit," the spirit comments, touching Yugi's hand.

 _'I don't want to. Being pissed off is the only thing keeping me from jumping through window out of sheer embarrassment, right now,'_ Yugi answers, but he takes a deep breath and tries to stop his heart from pounding its way right out of his chest.

When anyone finally comes out of the master bedroom it's the still shirtless future-Yugi, who throws him an expressionless stare before holding the door open. A young woman, slightly shorter than the man, steps out, glancing at Yugi's direction in embarrassment before heading quickly to the hall. Yugi blinks after her, first with curiosity and then with surprise.

Of course he had known there'd be someone – but a girl? And a pretty girl at that, with short red hair – now wet, she must've taken a shower. A girl….

The future-Yugi follows her into the hall, and though Yugi can tell they are trying to talk too quiet for him to hear, their voices carry better now, with no door in the way.

"You said you didn't have a sub," the girl says, sounding confused and maybe a bit hurt.

"I don't, really don't. He just has a stupid sense of style and I haven't gotten around to explaining things to him," Yugi's future self says and Yugi only barely smothers the urge to shout at him in outrage. "I'm really sorry about this," the man continues. "Though it's probably better he came around now and not half an hour later."

The girl lets out a short, embarrassed laugh. "Yeah, well, maybe," she says and there is a short moment quiet. "Listen, I don't…. Okay, you're a really sweet dom, but – I don't think we match that well."

"Kind of you to say," the man answers with a sigh. "But I know I wasn't really paying enough attention. Don't worry about it; I know it's my fault. My head wasn't in the game."

She answers with a sigh. "Well, maybe one day when your head is in it, you might give me a call. I know you're good, but I guess it just wasn't a good day for you," she says, though with little enthusiasm. "So, um. I'll just…."

"You okay to go home alone?" the future Yugi asks, sounding concerned now. "I can call you a cab if you want – my treat."

"It's okay," she laughs. "I don't live far, I can manage it – and I'm fine. Didn't really get into subspace yet so…."

"Oh, _ouch_. Way to hit a guy where it hurts," he laughs back, awkward. "Well then… I'll see you at the Whiplash sometime, maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe…."

Yugi bows his head a bit, confused and a bit embarrassed to have been listening in. There is a sound of a door opening and closing and then there is silence – and it's tense, thick enough to carry weight, and thick enough to get stuck somewhere in Yugi's throat.

When he manages to look up, the future Yugi is standing by the hallway entrance, leaning against the wall with his bare arms folded, looking at them like he doesn't know what he even is anymore. "So," the man says, his voice low and flat. "What can I do for you two?"

Yugi wants to say something – anything – that might release the sudden tension, either soothing it out or making it detonate. A joke or maybe an accusation, something that would make things a bit easier. But what comes out of his mouth instead is a disbelieving "A girl?"

"What were you expecting, a goat?" his future self asks, snorting.

"No, I was expecting --" Yugi starts and then clamps his mouth shut, keeping himself forcibly from glancing at his incorporeal other self who sits beside him. When he looks at his future self, the man has a single eyebrow raised at him, looking somewhere between amused and maybe mocking, and somehow that makes it worse.

"Would you like an explanation, then – should I account my tastes in sexual activities to you?" the man asks, his voice low and _mean_ somehow. Hurtful. "I can do that; hell, this is already one of the worst nights of my life. Let's do this. Let's have a little _talk_."

"I've had several, thanks all the same," Yugi answers, leaning his head back with a groan and covering his face in his hands, wanting to _die_.

"Not this one, you haven't," the man answers with a snort and is quiet for a moment. "Though first you might want to ask your other self to give us some privacy."

"What?" Yugi asks while the spirit jerks with surprise, the two of them glancing at each other before turning to the man. "Why?" Yugi asks with suspicion – has the man gone back to the awkwardness of the start, is he again avoiding the spirit?

The man smiles, mirthless. "Do you _really_ want him to know about the person who sat two seats left of you, that first day in school?" he asks. "Because _this_ has to do with _that_. And I think I really do want to give you this talk now. So."

Yugi's eyes widen a bit and his first instinct is to stop this somehow, walk away from this – and if he can't, then politely beg the spirit to excuse him. Nowadays he knows better though – knows that this very instinct is his biggest personal failing, and that it's never good idea to give into it.

"You didn't tell him. Your spirit, you never let him know," he says, looking at his future self steadily and ignoring the confused and slightly suspicious look the spirit is giving him and the man.

"Of course not," the man says, closing his eyes. "It could've made things worse. It _can_ make things worse for you."

"Partner," the spirit says before Yugi can answer the words. "Partner, I can retreat to the Puzzle – don't worry about it, whatever it is. I don't need to know –"

Yugi claps the spirit's hand tightly, stopping him from fading. "No," he says and glares at the man. And oh god, he's terrified, but… "I am not making _your_ mistakes. My other self stays."

The man's eyes snap open at that. "Oh really?" he asks, but the mocking tone doesn't hold together quite as well as before – his voice shakes, with surprise and maybe with the same fear that's now grasping Yugi's heart. "You absolutely sure that's what you want?"

Yugi hesitates and the spirit squeezes his hand. "It's alright," the spirit says. "I can go, you can decide if you want to tell me later.  It's okay –"

"No. No, I am not keeping things from you. It never works when we keep things from each other – look at BattleCity, look at him!" Yugi answers, pointing at his future self. "I am _not_ ending up like him."

The pain in the man's eyes when he looks away and the shock in the spirit's eyes, they both hurt, one more than the other. And this is confusing and scary and Yugi knows it's probably not going to end up in sunshine and daisies. But he's made his decision, and as he forces it by clutching onto the spirit's hand, it's maybe a bit of a relief, too. Not that he's ever had many qualms about keeping this bit of himself a secret, it's not that big of a deal really, and yet….

It's still a relief.

 "Alright then," the future-Yugi says, pushing himself away from the wall. "You tell him. I'm going to take a shower."

"What? Me?" Yugi asks with horror. "But you're the one –"

"No, you're the one. That bit is all yours, and I already know it. You tell him that – and once you've done that, I'll tell you what I did later on," the man says and just like that walks away, leaving Yugi alone with the spirit.

"You don't have to. Whatever it is, you don't have to tell me," the spirit assures him quickly.

Yugi hesitates and yeah, it's tempting. But he's made a choice, and now he's sticking to it. "No," he says, and smiles grimly. "Actually… I think I do."


	28. Precious Treasure

The spirit shifts awkwardly where he sits, while his partner thinks furiously. The spirit can feel it as a sort of buzzing in his head, as Yugi thinks, but he tries not to look too closely into the thought process, letting his partner sort out his thoughts by himself and then decide what he's going to say.

It's… confusing, all of it. Though the flat is now still and quiet, with only the sound of water running in the master bedroom's small bathroom colouring the silence, everything seems to be moving so fast suddenly, too fast. The spirit desperately wants some time to sort out his thoughts and maybe it really would've been better if Yugi had just decided to keep him in the dark about… about whatever he and the future-Yugi wanted to talk about. It would have given the spirit the time to think.

Though, really, he is glad he's not being excluded from it, from whatever it is. Even if it is obviously difficult for Yugi, the spirit wants to know. After all, how can he help if he doesn't know anything? Only, he wishes it wasn't so obviously difficult for Yugi, wishes Yugi wasn't so obviously scared of letting him know – of what his reaction might be.

As if he could ever do anything but accept Yugi just the way he is.

And whatever this talk will bring to light is just one thing. That tattoo on the man's back, taking over most of the skin there, covering him from shoulders to the waist… the spirit hadn't gotten as good a look at it as he would've liked, at the impressive display of colours and shapes on the future Yugi's back, but he had seen enough – he had seen that one unmistakeable shape done in brown, white, red, gold and blue… that familiar, eerie shape, ancient Egyptian design….

"Okay, this is weird, and… really it doesn't even matter, but," Yugi starts, stops, hesitates, and then sighs, not looking anywhere near the spirit. "Or at least I hope it doesn't matter or change anything or… or anything. But anyway. Um…."

"If you're going to tell me, then just tell me," the spirit says softly, pushing the thought of the tattoo away. "Stop being so worried – nothing you say could change my opinion of you."

"Don't be so sure," Yugi mutters and shakes his head. "Okay. So. The first day at Domino High," he says, confusing the spirit a bit – because what does that have to do with anything? Apparently something, because Yugi continues. "I didn't know anyone in my class except Anzu and she was sitting all the way across the classroom from me. It was just before the first class, the teacher hadn't come in yet and I think no one much knew anyone else. Maybe a few were from same schools, but most weren't."

Yugi frowns a bit, and shakes his head. "Anyway. There were these two guys, one of them might've been Jou but I'm not sure anymore, it was a while ago. They were joking around, probably trying to relieve the tension, and I was sitting right next to them, right? So I could hear what they were saying. They were… I don't know how it started, but they were judging the girls in the class, you know, who was the prettiest, who'd they want to go out with, that sort of stupid stuff."

"Okay…" the spirit says, confused. "And then what? You joined the conversation?"

"No, of course not – why would they talk to _me_?" Yugi snorts, shaking his head. "But I was listening, and… I sort of got to thinking about it too, because I was panicked and nervous, and thought it was just something you did – that maybe…" he trails away and shakes his head. "Of course I didn't say anything but I did look around. And I compared people."

The spirit shakes his head. "And then what?" he asks. It doesn't sound like anything special to him – though maybe it isn't something he would've expected of his kind hearted, accepting partner. Yugi isn't the sort of guy to compare people's appearances – Yugi never seems to care about superficial things. He cares about how people act, what they are like – and even then he lets them get away with just about anything short of murder.

"Before the teacher came in, I was down to two people," Yugi says. "First was this girl, sitting three seats ahead of me. She was playing tick-tack-toe with her friend; she had a warm laugh and she seemed nice. And the other was… sitting two seats to the left of me. The guys next to me had just tripped another kid, and the one sitting two seats to the left of me was helping him up, telling the other guys to behave even though they were bigger and I thought they were kind of scary – back then, it was the bravest thing I thought I had ever seen."

"Oh," the spirit says, and smiles. Yeah, that does sound more like Yugi. "And you thought you'd rather date the girl who stood up to the guys, hm?"

Yugi is quiet for a moment and then shrugs his shoulders, staring down at his lap. "It… wasn't a girl," he says quietly.

The spirit frowns a bit. "Partner?"

"It wasn't a girl," Yugi repeats, shrugging his shoulders awkwardly. "It was a guy. And yeah, I know," he adds before the spirit can say anything. "For a while I convinced myself that I just liked strong girls, girls who behaved like that boy did, but… that wasn't it. Because whenever I thought about it or compared people, the one I chose was always a guy. Be it because they seemed nice or had a nice smile or whatever, I always find some reason to pick a guy over any girl."

He shakes his head while the spirit frowns at the words. "I've never really liked girls – I've never really liked anyone like that. But if I did… it'd be a guy. But it never really meant anything," he adds. "It's never really changed things because really I've never liked anyone like that, like I'd want to date them. So what does it matter, really? Either way, nothing's happening so it might as well be as if I…" he trails away, awkward and finally manages to glance up, looking at the spirit oh so very carefully.

"What about Anzu?" the spirit asks, feeling a bit lost with the whole thing.

Yugi blinks back, equally confused. "What about her?"

"Don't you like her?"

"Of course I do. She's my oldest friend, she probably knows me better than anyone else, aside from you and now my future self," Yugi shrugs, tilting his head a bit. "I don't like her like that, though."

"But that date!" the spirit says, unable to keep himself from sounding a bit accusing.

"It was _your_ date, not mine," Yugi says, waving a hand at him. "She likes you and you needed to lighten up. And besides, just because I don't like girls like that doesn't mean that you don't. We're different people."

"But –" the spirit starts and then stops even more confused than before. Shaking his head he runs a hand through his transparent hair, trying to sort out his thoughts into something like order. "Are you sure about this?" he finally asks. "You said you've never liked anyone; how can you be sure you only like guys?"

Yugi flushes a bit and shrugs his shoulders. "Well, I, uhm. Sort tested it out, once. Jonouchi had this tape and he loaned it to me. It had two girls and…" he looks away, bright red from the roots of his hair down to the edge of the collar. "It did absolutely nothing for me. It was actually kind of gross."

"Lovely," a third voice says, and only then the spirit realises that the water had stopped running. As he and Yugi turn to look, the future Yugi walks out of the master bedroom with a towel hanging from his shoulder. His hair is wet and he has, somewhat disappointingly, a shirt on.

"So, the cat's out of the bag now?" the man asks while heading up to the kitchen and getting something from the fridge. The spirit can't help but feel a bit relieved – the man doesn't sound so horribly flat and mocking anymore, if anything he sounds relaxed, almost easy-going.

Yugi makes a noise of agreement, and then the spirit remembers the start of the whole thing.

"Wait. If Yugi prefers… how come…" he pauses, his finger aimed somewhere in the direction of the master bedroom – where the future Yugi had been with a _woman_.

"That's what I'd like to know," Yugi says, embarrassed, while the future Yugi comes to lean on the counter separating the kitchen section from the living room, with a bottle of sake in his hand.

"Because in the intervening years I've developed other tastes and my two preferences don't always match – so I have to make compromises," the man says, jumping to sit on the counter so that his legs hang on the living room side. "I prefer guys too, and I always will – but I am willing to _settle_ on the female gender if that lets me indulge my other interests."

"What does that mean?" Yugi asks, sounding confused, while the spirit shifts uncomfortably where he sits.

The future-Yugi snorts. "It means that I am a horrible pervert and rare are the gay guys who share my fetishes," he says, and then laughs at the look the words put on the younger Yugi's face. "Okay, they're not that rare, but they're a bit trickier to find. Especially in this time," the man says, taking a sip of his drink. "I'm going to miss the ease of online dating."

"Am I going to…?" Yugi asks, looking horrified, while the spirit frowns, trying and utterly failing to connect a _version of Yugi_ with the words _horrible pervert_.

"I don't know," the future-Yugi shrugs, giving him a look. "Judging by the way you dress…" he raises his eyebrows a bit and then grins at Yugi's blush. "It's not that bad, and it's not like I'm doing anything illegal. So what if it's a bit freaky, so as long as it's safe, sane and consensual."

The words are followed by a bit of quiet, as Yugi thinks about it, and the spirit tries not to. "So, uh. Sorry, about interrupting," Yugi then says. "Do you… like her a lot?"

"I barely know her, met her only yesterday and probably won't see her again," the man shrugs. "Cute girl, very flexible, but she has some kinks I don't and that would make things a bit awkward before long."

"Oh," Yugi murmurs. "So you don't, aren't…" he frowns a bit.

"I don't date, I don't do romantic relationships, I don't even do long term relationships," the future-Yugi says, making both Yugi and the spirit look up. The man shrugs again. "She knew that. It was never about romance with her."

"But… never?" Yugi asks in horror. "You've never had anyone? Boyfriend, girlfriend, anyone?"

The man says nothing to that, just looks at him for a while before throwing his head back and draining the bottle dry. "God, you have no idea, do you?" he asks and when Yugi just blinks back, he shakes his head. "Alright, I think I want to be drunk right now," the future-Yugi murmurs, dropping the bottle on the counter before swinging himself back to the kitchen, to get another – no, to get _two of them_.

"You are _not_ getting drunk," Yugi objects in horror.

"Oh yes I am – and I had some drinks earlier so I'm already half there anyway," the man laughs, opening the second bottle and taking a big drink. "Because I need to tell you something," he says and takes another drink. "And I can't do it sober. Just give me ten minutes."

"Stop that!" Yugi snaps, quickly getting to his feet and reaching up to snatch the half drained bottle and the unopened one away from the man. "And stop drinking anyway! It's a disgusting, self-destructive habit and you're just ruining your health with it!"

"You say that now. Just give it a few years," the man laughs, but he doesn't seem too bothered by the theft of his drinks – if anything he looks sad and yet somehow pleased. "You're wrong you know. Not about the drinking, about you never liking anybody."

"What?" Yugi asks, crouching to place the sake bottles on the floor. "No, I think I'd know if I'd ever liked someone," he says, returning to the couch.

"Mm-hmm," the man snorts. "You have no idea. Also you have no idea how damn good you are at self-denial," he adds, looking down at his own hands, spreading his fingers a bit. "Let me enlighten you a bit, my fool of a younger self," he says then, showing his hands, the burn scars. "Think back a bit, back before BattleCity. The fire."

"What about it?" Yugi asks a bit defensively while sitting down beside the spirit who frowns at the man sitting on the counter. Why bring up the fire now?

The future Yugi just smiles at them, looking amused and miserable all at once. Then he turns suddenly to look at the spirit. "You were cut off that time, so you wouldn't know what went through his head when the Puzzle was smashed. The place was on fire and the Puzzle chain was pinned with a steel rod, he couldn't move it. Now, the logical reaction to that would be to leave the Puzzle and come back for it later, once the fire had died down –"

"It would've burned, what if I wouldn't have been able to find it?!" Yugi demands to know, hugging the Millennium Item to his chest while the spirit shifts closer, unnerved by what the man is saying.

"It wouldn't have burned and you couldn't have lost it – it's a magical artefact, thousands of years old, and you're its destined carrier," the man says, laughing softly. "But, anyway. You didn't leave. No, you stayed in a burning building to solve a puzzle that took you eight years the first time."

"Why are you talking about this now? It's in the past, it doesn't matter anymore," the spirit says, covering Yugi's hand on the Puzzle with his own, trying to reassure him.

"Oh but it does. Don't you see?" the man says. "It took me – it took _him_ eight years the first time. And we knew it, when that damn building was burning all around, we knew it took us eight years. But we didn't leave, no. We stayed to complete the Puzzle – and let me tell you, the Puzzle itself didn't have a damn thing to do with it."

"So what? It turned out okay," the spirit says, while Yugi bows his head with a conflicted, pained look on his face.

"Are you being dense on purpose?" the future-Yugi asks with a sigh. "Think about it a bit. And that talk in the hospital too, after the fire. Remember?" he shakes his head. "I think that was the first time. The very first time we stopped talking, avoided the subject, just so we didn't have to hear the words."

The man lets out a laugh, staring at his hands. "And then everything was okay once more. And it was never thought of again."

The spirit shakes his head and looks at Yugi. "Partner?" he whispers, one hand on top of Yugi's on the Puzzle, other on his partner's shoulder. God the look on his partner's face…. "It's alright. Never mind it, _please_. It's alright." Just stop looking so broken.

The future Yugi chuckles where he sits, on the counter with his bare feet hanging in the air. "Oh, but it isn't, is it?" he asks, making the spirit glare up at him – and then stop at the desperate look the man gives him. "You see?" he says and motions at himself. "Look at me, ten years later. Look at how damn _alright_ I am."

That makes the younger Yugi look up, first at the spirit and then up at the man. "You never told him," he says softly.

"Of course not," the man says, shaking his head. "I had no idea at the time," he laughs softly, weakly. "Like I said, you're a master at self-denial. And of course, so was I. By the time I knew what was actually going on in my own head, well. It was already too late."

The spirit frowns a bit at that and it feels like his head is full of cotton – he can't _think_ this, he can't…. Yugi? _His_ Yugi? And to him, for him? Why him, why _Yugi_? It doesn't seem real, and yet it hurts too much to be a dream and…. The spirit knows he should say something, anything. Yugi looks like he's about to faint, and the older one is still laughing that horrible, miserable laugh that doesn't even sound like a laugh – and the spirit… can't think of anything to say.

Then he remembers something and looks up again. "That tattoo," he says in horror, quickly standing up but keeping one hand firmly on Yugi's shoulder. "That thing on your back… is this…?"

"You mean this thing?" the man asks, flipping on the counter so that he's sitting with his back to them, and then he drags the hem of his black shirt up, to reveal the intricate Egyptian symbols. The enormous winged sun across his shoulders, the hieroglyphics below it, and there, standing on the right side of his spine…

"A bit pathetic maybe, but it was a way I could keep a part of you with me," the man says, his head bowed.

The future Yugi has a portion of the Tablet of Memories tattooed on his back. There is no mistake about it – it is _him_ , the same figure of the ancient pharaoh, only in more detail and greater colour than on the stone tablet. The future-Yugi has etched the spirit's ancient self on his skin, with the ancient pharaoh's hand held out – and the spirit knows, without needing to be told, that where the ancient pharaoh holds his empty hand is precisely the spot where Yugi's heart is.

 


	29. Love

Yugi lets the hem of his shirt drop while staring at the kitchen counters. He feels… deflated and cold now; and it really doesn't help that he's half drunk. And _only_ half drunk, too.

"Can I have my sake back now?" he asks, more to himself than to the others and of course they don't answer. He can almost feel the sheer lack of his younger self's thoughts – the kid's turned so far inward right now that the _void_ of his thoughts is tugging at the edges at Yugi's own thoughts. And the spirit is a great big mass of confusion and suspicion behind him, horror and denial and so many other things; that it's impossible to tell what he's really thinking.

Either way, this could've gone much better. Or, if he had been lucky, it could've _not gone down_ at all. That would've been a much preferred case scenario. But no, of course not, he isn't that lucky these days and somehow his younger self has this uncanny ability to just slam into him, and right where it hurts the most too.

Maybe it's all because of bad karma. Yugi's not sure how he's managed to accumulate so much of it for _this_ to happen, though. Maybe one of his games had ended up being secretly bad for people and he hadn't known. Or maybe it's just what he had coming, for trying to ignore his issues the way he had.

And damn, he had really looked forward to getting properly laid for once. It might've not been enough to repair anything, not even close, but maybe just for a little while he could've just… stopped thinking. An orgasm by someone hand other than his own would've been nice too.

Lifting his gaze from the countertops to the fridge Yugi's just about to hop up and get himself another bottle, his younger self be damned, when Atemu speaks up from behind him.

"Why me?"

Yugi snorts at that before he can stop himself and glances over his shoulder to see if _that_ was enough to get a reaction out of his younger self. And of course it is – the kid blinks with surprise and then turns a disbelieving look at the spirit who looks back in confusion and agitation.

"Why _you_?" the kid asks. "Why… you? Who _else_ is there?"

Atemu shakes his head in disbelief. "Anyone! I am… I'm not… I don't even have a body of my own, I'm not even _alive_! I'm not…" he trails away, looking away for a moment and then up to Yugi. "And you, you still…? It's been ten years for you and you still –?"

Yugi shrugs and looks away, awkward and embarrassed. It is bad enough – or it had been – when his friends had that same talk with him. Why after so much time, why couldn't he just move on, let us help you, Yugi, you can overcome this, really, you can, people move on all the time. But to get the same from Atemu himself?

"You know what," he says, suddenly so goddamn tired that he can only barely keep himself from lying down on the counter. "You two obviously need to talk this through. How about I just head to bed and –"

"You are _not_ leaving!" his younger self's voice lashes out like a whip and Yugi starts a bit under it. "You brought this on us, and you've been going through this for ten years, probably avoiding it all the while – you are staying right there and you are getting your head out of your ass and you, too, are going to talk this through so help me god –"

Turning to look backwards, at his suddenly furious younger self while Atemu stares at his host in shock, Yugi has to smother a smile. Yeah, the kid is definitely his younger self. He's maybe not _quite_ there, and who knows, it might take a totally different path with the past-Yugi. But he has the flair, and it shows whenever he gets motivated enough.

"Fine," Yugi says, turning around again, to face them. "Though what else is there to talk about?" he asks. It's all out now, isn't it? Every last bit of his ten years of misery.

Really, he wants his sake back. It's probably all warm now, though.

"There's everything to talk about," his younger self says, turning the Millennium Puzzle in his hands anxiously, glancing at Atemu and then away again. "I'm not leaving this hanging over us, not the way you keep leaving everything. We'll talk it through and… not be confused about it."

Atemu frowns a bit and then looks at Yugi. "If you…" he starts and trails away, thinking – and Yugi almost winces at the feel of it. His thoughts are so familiar, painfully so. "Why did you say _hell_ that first day?" he asks. "If you… feel that, and…" he frowns.

"Seeing you, back from the _afterlife_ and just like I remember you?" Yugi asks with a shake of his head.... "And more than that; the way you were before everything changed for the worse? What else could it be but hell? God, you're… oblivious, you're almost _innocent_ right now. And I'm…" he trails away, throwing a half disgusted wave at the bedroom.

He likes his lifestyle and he likes indulging in his interests, his perversions. They're a blessed – not to mention pleasurable – way to shut off his mind for a while, to forget. But that's still what they are, perversions, and he has no illusions about how people view most of what he likes to do. With that, with _years_ of that behind him, to see Atemu as he was before – and next to another version of himself, an innocent version?

"And you didn't know me. You looked at me like I was something to be worried about, something dangerous and suspicious," he adds flatly – and maybe he had been. Maybe he is. "What else could it be, but hell?" he whispers, shaking his head.

"It's not," his younger self snaps at him, and Yugi looks down. "I wish you'd just stop saying things like that, stop being so…. Why do you have to be so, so… miserable all the time?!"

"I don't know. Somehow it makes things easier," Yugi shrugs. "Sorry," he adds mirthlessly.

"Ugh," His younger self groans, leaning back and folding his arms before giving Atemu a sideways look. "It… this, any of this, it doesn't… it doesn't change anything," he says, his shoulders slumping a bit. "It doesn't have to. I mean, it didn't mean anything before, it doesn't have –"

"Of course it does," the spirit says, and Yugi winces along with his younger self at the force of the words. "This changes everything!" Atemu says, shaking his head, looking between them. "I thought – all this time I thought…" he shakes his head again and turns away from Yugi and to his actual partner, the one he shares a body with. "I thought… that you liked Anzu."

Yugi shrugs at the helpless look his younger self sends at him – he has no idea what to say to that either, and really, the kid's on his own. In his time Anzu knows all about him, and is in a very nice relationship with a co-actor. In his time this wouldn't be an issue.

"Yeah, well," his younger self finally says, shrugging his shoulders. "Obviously I don't."

"Yeah, but…" Atemu hesitates and when he speaks again, it's barely loud enough to be heard. " _Why me_?"

"I don't…. Who else would I – who else is there?" Yugi's younger self asks, shaking his head at the look Atemu gives him and then looks up to Yugi. "Do _you_ have a better answer?"

"Yeah, I do," Yugi says, sighing and flips to sit sideways on the counter before lying down on his back, hands crossed beneath his head. He doesn't want to look at them anymore, so he turns his eyes upwards and to the dark ceiling. "It has to do with the stuff I can't talk about, but…."

He closes his eyes for a moment, thinking about what he can safely say. "The carving on the Tablet of Memories," he says. "There is a reason why it looks like me – like you. Or rather, there is a reason why _we_ look like it. Like him."

"Because… we're reincarnation of him?" his younger self asks.

"We're not. Well, not exactly," Yugi says, pointing a finger at Atemu's general direction. "After all, if we were reincarnation, then how would you be here? No. We're not reincarnation – not fully. We're a… half. And you're the other half."

"What?" Atemu asks in a choked whisper.

"How does the story go? As you know it, how does it go, what happened?" Yugi asks. "Something along the lines of you sealing away the darkness, and yourself along with it, wasn't it? Not quite right. The pharaoh didn't seal away _all_ of himself. More like half. And the other half was left behind, to wait."

"And that other half, that's us?" Yugi's younger self asks.

"The way I think it goes is that we were born for the precise purpose of completing the Millennium Puzzle. Think about it. Grandpa finds the Puzzle and takes it home – and then, eventually, we're born into _his_ family, close enough to get our hands on the Millennium Puzzle. Sometimes I think that if he would've had more kids himself, we would've been reborn as one of them rather than as his grandson," the man answers, opening his eyes. "But he already had a kid when he got the Puzzle and had no more; so we had to wait for the next generation."

"Oh my god," his younger self murmurs and when Yugi glances his way, the kid is up on his feet, pacing. And Atemu is staring at Yugi in outright horror.

"Well. It's just a theory, no one ever could prove it one way or the other," Yugi murmurs, looking away. "And I guess it's a bit unromantic when you get down to it. Or maybe overly romantic, depends how you look at it really. But it makes sense to me. And besides, after… after I was left behind, there was a hole in my soul." A big gaping chasm, actually. It had taken him years to find a way to fill it – and god had he ever done it badly. "So yeah," he says. "Why you? Like there ever could be anyone else."

"Ooh god," his younger self laughs – it sounds a bit like he's choking. "And you, ten years of – of that? No wonder you're so messed up all the time!"

"Thanks," Yugi snorts. "Though it might be that I'm just messed up in other ways. No need to justify my stupidity – it’s still stupidity."

"But half of your soul!" His younger self says and he sounds almost desperate. "And… half of _my_ soul… _oh god_ –"

"Partner," Atemu says and then the sounds of pacing stop. Yugi squeezes his eyes tightly shut, not wanting to see it – and yet he can sense it on his skin. Atemu is holding his younger self now, keeping him still and from moving, and it _hurts_. It hurts to know that it could've been, hurts to know it never will be him, hurts to….

Taking as steady a breath as he can, Yugi shifts where he lies, turning and intending to get up and away – maybe if he locked himself in the guestroom or the main bathroom, he could just lock this all out, keep it away. A little bit of solitude, space to breath and maybe he'd feel together again, maybe he'd be able to face this a bit later on and –

"Oh no, you don't," Atemu says and there is a hand on his wrist, holding tight despite its lack of actual physical presence. "Don't run. There are not two of me and I can't be with you both unless you're both _here_."

"But –" Yugi chokes out, and god his throat hurts, his eyes are stinging, and how long has he been shaking? It feels like his bones are coming apart. "I'm… y-you're not – "

"I'm not, I know, and I'm sorry about that," the spirit says, tugging at his hand. "But I'm all there is and just now it has to be good enough. Come on, Yugi. Turn around."

His breath coming in stuttering gulps, Yugi fights the hand holding his wrist for a moment, but he can't – because it's Atemu and he's there and…. He turns around and almost cries out at the sight of his younger self, shuddering where he is, tightly pressed against Atemu's side, his face buried in the spirit's chest. It's everything Yugi's ever wanted and god he feels like he's _dying_ , but Atemu is looking at him with determination in his eyes, still tugging at his hand.

"Come on," the spirit says and Yugi comes, dropping to the floor almost limply. He keeps on falling, going down to his knees with a painful thump, but Atemu has him now, has one arm tight around his shoulders with fingers clasped around the back of his neck; holding him up, pulling him against his side.

"B-but you don't –" someone says, maybe it's Yugi or maybe it's his younger self, he's not sure.

Atemu is the one who answers. "No, _I do_. Of course I do," he murmurs, his hand tight and somehow warm despite the fact that it's not actually even there. His voice is shaking too and somehow it makes everything better and so much worse all at once. "Gods, Yugi. How could I not love you?"


	30. Creation

Yugi's head hurts and he's giddy in a weird, half demented way but he doesn't want to get up. Somewhere along the line of their impromptu group hug, he had ended up half in his future self's lap, and the spirit is leaning over them both, holding them together, holding them close. It's not _helping_ exactly, but Yugi's starting to feel a bit more like himself again, and less like the room is shaking apart around him.

His elder self feels better too – he doesn't look better, the man looks god-awful and broken in a way he hasn't since that incident in the alleyway. But he doesn't feel like _self-loathing-anger-guilt-shame-want-need-desperation_ anymore. He doesn't feel quite peaceful though – he feels… shivery, flickering between emotions, but the emotions themselves aren't all consuming monsters anymore.

"Better now?" the spirit asks and how weird is it that _he_ is the steadiest of them all – he, the incorporeal spirit with no memories and no certainty about anything, he who stands at the centre of this whole mess. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle is absolutely _stable_.

Yugi's not too surprised when the words make his elder self laugh – he's starting to realise that laughter seems to be a common reaction from his older self, when it comes to all this emotional stuff. It's a horrible laugh too, now that he understands it – because the man is laughing at himself, mocking himself – but maybe it's better than if he was crying.

"Yeah," Yugi murmurs, shifting his head a bit. "Still a bit freaked out. Just a bit though."

"I guess that's more or less normal," the spirit answers, leaning his head down and resting his chin on Yugi's hair – and for a moment the smaller duellist feels a bit less terrified. He still can't quite… well it's not like he doesn't trust the spirit or doesn't believe him, but… he doesn't understand this. Any of it – it's too much too soon, all piled up on top of itself, too heavy.

But he feels sheltered. His elder self's hand is on his waist and the spirit's hand is around his neck, in his hair, and Yugi feels safe. He feels _held_. And as odd and sudden as all of this is, that... feels nice.

"Oh, my head is pounding," is the first thing his future self says, bowing his head with a sigh and resting it on Yugi's shoulder for a moment.

"That's what you get for drinking," Yugi murmurs, lifting his free hand – the other is around the spirit's waist – and brushing the man's bangs aside. "So you'd be better off just quitting."

"Yeah, I guess I would," the future-Yugi answers, closing his eyes, and his emotions _well up_ and then just dissipate, and the man turns sort of lax against him, leaning a bit heavier into Yugi. It doesn't feel like relaxation, though. It feels like he's giving up. "I guess I _will_ ," he murmurs.

"Good," Yugi murmurs, frowning a bit and then glancing up at the spirit who shifts back to look at them both. They're both very serious and Yugi feels a bit scared for a moment because – god – there's now this _thing_ hanging somewhere between them and he's not sure if it will push them apart or bring them closer and it's all so very, very strange and –

Yugi's older self chuckles again, quiet and short but somehow it releases the anxiety. Yugi starts laughing too, not entirely sure why, but once he starts he can't stop – and then the spirit is laughing now too. It's awkward and startled, his face pressed against Yugi's with their forehead's touching and the spirit's lips against Yugi's cheek and they're just _laughing_.

And then, suddenly, everything seems like it's going to be alright. It's not that easy – there's so much to do and think and talk about but… it feels like it's going to be okay. And Yugi can't stop smiling, even after the laughter stops, he smiles at his other self who smiles back, and then they both look at the future-Yugi who is looking at them with an odd, wistful expression.

"You two are so pretty," the man murmurs, lifting a hand and trailing it across the spirit's cheek and down to Yugi's, trailing his thumb over Yugi's chin. "Really damn pretty."

"I'm not _pretty_ ," Yugi objects, feeling his cheeks burn suddenly.

"Yeah, okay. With those eyes you're more cute than pretty, really," the man admits thoughtfully. He's still weirdly lax and limp though, and so when Yugi pushes at him in retaliation, the man just rolls backwards, landing on his back on the floor with a heavy thump.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry," Yugi gasps, shifting to look, afraid the man might've banged his head on the floor – hard wood is named that for a reason after all – but the man is laughing again, a little less miserable now.

"I was cute when I was young. Huh," the man murmurs between chuckles. "And I just called myself cute. This so freaking bizarre." Laughing again, he lifts a hand, like making a point. "Also, for the record, I think I might be drunker than I assumed."

"Yeah, probably," the spirit says while Yugi contemplates the man as he lies there. Then, shrugging his shoulders, Yugi shifts to his side and lies down too, pushing at the man's arm until the man lifts it and Yugi can rest his head on his future self's bicep. It's… for all that the floor is hard, it's actually kind of comfortable.

"If we're going to have a cuddle, can we move this to the couch?" the man asks, even while tangling his fingers in Yugi's hair gently.

"Nope," Yugi says, looking up at the spirit as he too moves closer, not lying down like they are but sitting sort of over them. With a smile Yugi lifts a hand, reaching for his incorporeal companion. The spirit smiles back, sort of tentative, and their fingers tangle together almost automatically

"Yeah, a couch would be just too convenient and comfortable, wouldn't it?" the future-Yugi murmurs, staring at the clasped hands that hover just over his stomach.

"And it would take too much effort," Yugi agrees, and then tugs at the spirits hand. His future self lets out a sort of _oof_ sound as the spirit falters and falls to land across him, one of his elbows digging into the man's midriff.

"Sorry, sorry," the spirit says and quickly shifts into a better position, one where he isn't constricting the man's breathing. "I'm not used to having this much impact on people. Or being this close to so many of them."

"It's okay," the future Yugi murmurs, giving him a sort of startled, uneasy look before shaking his head and just leaning back. "This is going to kill my back, though. We really should move this to the couch." While he says it, though, his fingers sort of tighten on Yugi's hair, so he probably doesn't want to move any more than Yugi does.

For a while they're quiet, Yugi nestled against his future self's side and the spirit lying sort of over both of them, mostly on the man but his head's resting against Yugi's side. And it's nice. Sure, the floor _is_ hard and Yugi will have a stiff shoulder once they will move and the man probably _will_ have a stiff back, but… it's nice. Not to mention warm.

"At the risk of ruining the cuddle," the spirit says thoughtfully, shifting a bit and looking at future-Yugi. "Can I see your tattoo again?"

"You'll have to move first," the man says while smothering a yawn under his free hand. When the spirit does move, the man nudges at Yugi to make him lift his head – and though Yugi thinks that the man would get up, he doesn't. Instead he turns around to lie on his stomach, somewhat haphazardly reaching downwards and then dragging the hem of his shirt up, to reveal his back.

While the spirit leans back to look, Yugi sits up to do the same, too curious not to. Close up, the tattoo is even more fascinating that it had been at a distance – the details of it are even more intricate than Yugi had assumed. The crown of the pharaoh, the detailing of his chest plate, the clothing… but what really impresses Yugi are the hieroglyphics that take the _background_ space of the tattoo, running downwards from the winged sun all the way down to the pharaoh's feet.

"It's amazing," Yugi murmurs, lifting a hand and tentatively touching the tattoo with two fingers, running his fingers along the line of the pharaoh's clothing. He can feel barely any difference between the tattooed and un-tattooed skin, but it is there. "Did it hurt?"

"As much as getting any tattoo hurts," his future self says, sighing and folding his arms beneath his head, resting his cheek on his forearm. "I got it done in pieces so it wasn't like it was done all at once. It took about three months – four sittings. But it was worth it."

"Why on your back?" the spirit asks, he too reaching out – though he trails his fingers along the hieroglyphics, avoiding the figure of the pharaoh. "If you wanted to keep a piece of me – of _him_ … why on your back, where you can't even see it?"

"I guess partially because of that. I wanted to have it, but I guess I didn't want to always look at it. I know it's there, and that's… enough," the man says.

"I see," the spirit murmurs, frowning. "What does it say? The hieroglyphics?"

The man hesitates, shifting a bit and then sighing. "It's a love song from ancient Egypt – changed a bit to suit the occasion, though," he says.

"A love song?" Yugi asks with surprise. "That doesn't seem like you."

The man chuckles, turning his head away, resting his forehead on his arms instead. Then he begins to sing, soft and low and somewhat unmelodic, muffled but still recognizable.

 

"He stands upon the further side,   
Between us flows the Nile;   
And in those waters deep and wide   
There lurks a crocodile.   
 

"Yet is my love so true and sweet,   
A word of power, a charm –  
The stream is land beneath my feet   
And bears me without harm.   
 

"For I shall come to where He stands,   
No more be held apart;   
And I shall take my darling's hands   
And draw Him to my heart."

 

The man finishes in a chuckle. "Don't have much of a singing voice, sorry," he says gruffly. "And of course, it's all in ancient Egyptian in the tattoo, and the translation's been shifted around a bit to make it rhyme, but it's more or less accurate."

Yugi blinks at that. "Oh," he murmurs, lowering his eyes, not sure whether to feel embarrassed or honoured or… what.

"It's… very lovely," the spirit whispers.

"Well, it was a promise and maybe a vow, more to myself than anyone else," the man murmurs. "Anzu suggested I do something and when I decided I wanted a tattoo Rishid designed it for me. I wasn't… doing too well at the time, and I think my friends were scared that I'd do something stupid. I might've, actually. So. They had me make a promise. And then I tattooed it on my skin, to make sure I'd keep it."

"And… what was the promise?" the spirit murmurs, running a hand along the hieroglyphics.

"Not to kill myself."

Somehow Yugi had been expecting that, so it doesn't shock him that much to hear it. The words obviously strike the spirit speechless, though, and his transparent fingers twitch on the man's back. Opening his mouth and closing it again, the spirit looks up, at Yugi, with a terribly sad and guilty look on his face.

Yugi smiles just as sadly, not really knowing what to say, and reaches out to rest his hand on the spirit's. "Right," he says, and then thinks of the lyrics again. "The stream is land beneath my feet," he says. "And bears me without harm. Of course. And crocodile and Nile…." Yeah, there probably wasn't a word for the river Sanzu in ancient Egyptian, and crocodile is as good a name for suicidal depression as any. "You know, you didn't tell us what you did afterwards," he says, his throat painfully tight.

"Hm?" the man asks, not moving.

"I told the _start of it_ and you promised to tell what you did afterwards. You didn't actually."

"I guess I didn't," his future-self agrees with a sigh. "Is it important?"

"A bit yeah," Yugi says with a frown and then lies down again, resting his cheek on the man's shoulder, half covered by the crumpled up shirt, half bare. "I think we deserve to know. You can't just tell us that you made vows and promises not to kill yourself and then expect us not to want to know the rest."

"I suppose not," the man sighs and turns his head, looking at him from the corner of his eyes. "There's not that much to tell though. Nothing you probably can't guess."

"Tell us anyway," the spirit says quietly, bowing his head a bit, still stroking the tattoo. "What happened after I… after you made the choice?"

"Nothing much, at first. I went back home and for a week or so I managed to convince myself that I was fine," Yugi's future self says, while Yugi lifts a hand to the man's neck, to his hair. The man sighs while closing his eyes and continues. "Then I realised I wasn't, really. I kept noticing that I was suddenly alone – kept turning to look behind me, kept touching my chest, expecting the Puzzle to be there. First thing in the morning I'd reach for my bedside table and it sort of…. I kept finding the alarm clock there, and not the Puzzle. It was… not that much fun."

"I'm sorry," the spirit whispers, now resting his forehead against the tattoo of the winged sun, his eyes shut.

The man sighs, his shoulders tensing a bit and then relaxing again. "Well, eventually I managed to sort of pull myself together," he says, and chuckles. "Kind of – it took Jou nearly beating me up to do it, but for a while I managed to be sort of myself again. But there were things…  I had Grandpa take my deck and the god cards away for a while because I kind of wanted to tear them apart – and I did something stupid to my room, just to get rid of the Duel Monsters stuff. I slept the last year I lived with Grandpa on the floor on a futon, because I sort of ruined the bed and wouldn't let Grandpa buy me a new one…" the man trails away for a moment and sighs heavily.

"Eventually I managed to concentrate on other things," he continues. "School work mostly – I became obsessed over it for a while, because it was a way to stop thinking about other things. I got pretty good scores, when I graduated. Grandpa was very proud, but… it didn't really mean anything to me."

"And then what?" Yugi asks, lifting his hand from the man's hair and resting it on the spirit's back instead. His companion is shaking.

"By then, months had passed by – it was horrible," his future self admits. "The worst thing was that it was spring and the tournament season was about to start – I got something like a dozen invitations to Duel Monsters tournaments. When I got one from Kaiba – he wanted to do BattleCity again, because it had been good advertising for his hologram systems – I sort of lost it. I applied to something like twenty universities, all of them out of town, and jumped at the first I passed the entry exams to. I moved to Nagoya pretty much as soon as I could, and I didn't tell anyone but Grandpa and my friends where I went.

"Of course, Kaiba tracked me down," the man snorts. "But I think Grandpa, Anzu and Jou had a talk with him or something, because he left me alone. And so I studied in this single minded stupor for a few years – it was a bit counterproductive, trying to get away from games by studying how to make them, but… it helped. And also, I got into the scene at the university, and that helped a bit more."

"The… scene?" Yugi asks with surprise.

"The _other_ preference," his future self answers, peeking one eye open and glancing at him from the corner of his eye. "Sex is an excellent way to forget for a while, infinitely better than alcohol, and much more pleasurable than throwing myself into my studies. And the way I do it, I can stretch it over hours. For me… it was bliss."

"Oh," Yugi mutters, flushing a bit and then looking up at the spirit who is frowning slightly, not saying anything. Yugi can tell what's on the spirit's mind though – because it's in his too. "B-but how could you, when you had feelings for someone else?"

"I couldn't at first, even after I got over being embarrassed about it, it felt a bit like cheating actually. But you can't really cheat on someone you've never been with, can you? I never could put my heart into it, of course, but sex has very little to do with feelings, most of the time," the man shrugs. "It was just me, making someone else feel as good as I ever could. There are worse things."

Yugi says nothing to that, and neither does the spirit. For a while they're just quiet, before the spirit asks softly, "Will you keep doing it now? Here?"

The future-Yugi doesn't answer. Somehow Yugi knew he wouldn't. "Anyway," the man continues. "The years I spent in Nagoya, I guess I sort of managed to redefine myself, and once I graduated, I was… steady enough to return to Domino. I managed to do some projects back in Nagoya, made a bit of a name for myself, so Kaiba hired me to work for him for a while – I think I worked for him for about a year, before I decided I wanted to do more than hologram and video games. So I quit, established myself as a freelancer – I still worked for him on occasion, of course – but I did other projects too…."

The future-Yugi is quiet for a while. "And… that's about it," he says after a moment of thought. "I lived like that all the way to the science expo. Kaiba invited me to see the launch of his newest game console – I had worked on a few games for it, nothing big – and then…."

"And then you ended up here," Yugi murmurs, frowning.

"And you're not happy here," the spirit adds, fingers trailing along the royal blue feathers of the winged sun of the future-Yugi's tattoo.

"Hell," the man murmurs, but it's not a statement, more a sigh. "I wasn't exactly happy _there_. Here… you're here. And that's worth more than my whole life back there ever was."


	31. Fairytale

Why him? That's all the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle wants to ask: why me, why me, _why me_. He doesn't say it out loud, though – he's said it enough times and gotten his answers, and even though he doesn't get them, he's still has them.

No reason to let the others know how confused he really is, things are shaky enough as they are.

And yet… why him? After all the things he's done – god, the mistakes he's made! In the beginning, he had hurt people, he had _killed_ them. And he had gotten Yugi hurt so many times. The fire might've not been his fault, but Yugi had burned himself because of him. Yugi had been forced to fight Jonouchi all because of him. Yugi’d had his soul cut and bruised by Marik – _because of him._

Why him, after that – how could Yugi feel that for him, do so much for him, after all of that? And when he only exists through Yugi, when he's not even a _being_ without Yugi, when he's little more than a parasite hanging at the edges of Yugi's existence….

And now the future Yugi is saying that just seeing him is worth ten years and more. For him he had etched an ancient drawing and a love song into his skin, for him he had irreversibly marked himself. For him he had been alone, more alone than the spirit had even realised – alone in his _soul_ for ten years. And for all that pain – all the pain that still hangs there, between them… it's worth it?

Why him?

Closing his eyes, the spirit bows his head, low enough for his forehead to touch the tattoo. The tattoo of him, for him. The future Yugi will carry it for the rest of his life. Irreversible.

The notion that someone – that _Yugi_ – could love him that much is absolutely terrifying.

"That tickles," the man murmurs beneath him, and the spirit realises he's been stroking the inked skin. "Also I really think we need to move this from the floor. My ribs are sort of aching now."

"Oh, shi – I'm sorry, I didn't realise –" the spirit says and quickly moves back while at the man's side the present-Yugi quickly shifts up as well, looking guilty.

With a soft groan, the future Yugi sits up as well, rubbing at his chest and lifting his hands to tug the shirt down, before stopping and glancing backwards at the spirit. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he pulls the shirt entirely off instead, dropping it on the floor and leaving his back – and chest – bare.

"So. Anyone hungry?" the man asks. He looks a bit harried and about as emotionally exhausted as the spirit feels and Yugi looks, but he seems not at all self-conscious about being shirtless in front of them. If anything, he looks pleased about the attention his tattoo is getting.

For all the pain and meaning it has, he's obviously proud of it. Proud, for having the spirit's image on his back.

 _Gods_.

"Kinda, a bit," the younger Yugi admits, rubbing at his eyes. "I'm sort of tired too. You… mind if I stay over tonight? I'm not really looking forward to trying to find a bus that runs at this hour."

"I… I guess it's okay. Sure, why not," the man sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Better call Grandpa and let him know, though. Um. I think my phone is in my coat, let me get it."

It's a bit strange, detaching themselves after the time spent more or less entangled. And for some reason, the spirit finds it hard to look at the younger Yugi now, without the elder Yugi there – because, because….

"Is it weird?" his partner asks softly, holding the puzzle between his hands. "I don't want things to be weird between us. But if they are…."

"They're… they're not," the spirit says, shifting closer and reaching a hand out, except… he's not sure how to touch Yugi now. Somehow it was easier when the older Yugi was there, because the man is so casual about it, doesn't mind it – been there, done that. But Yugi isn't. And neither is the spirit and without the man there, radiating sheer physical ease, it's… hard.

"It's okay," the spirit murmurs, and touches Yugi's shoulder. It feels no way different from the other hundreds and thousands of touches they've shared before – and yet it is. "Right?" he asks, looking up.

Yugi's flushed bright red, but he lifts a hand, placing it on top of the spirit's. "Y-yeah," he says. "Perfectly okay."

"Good god, you two," the future-Yugi says, coming back from the hall. "You're so adorable, it burns," he murmurs and then makes a throwing motion. "Here, catch."

"Hey –!" Yugi objects, only barely managing to keep the mobile phone from crashing onto the floor. "Little bit of warning would be nice – and what are you doing, throwing something like this! What if it broke?"

"Yeah, late nineties mobile phone. It would be a huge loss if it broke, I could never overcome it," the man laughs. "Anyway, I'm going to make some food. Any preferences?"

"Something edible would be nice," Yugi says, giving the man a suspicious look.

"Funny," his elder self says, heading up to the kitchen. "Call Grandpa."

"Yeah, yeah," Yugi murmurs, turning his attention to the phone. While he keys in the number, the spirit looks away, to the stairs leading to the kitchen before standing up to see over the counter that separates the kitchen from the living room. Judging by the looks of the things the future-Yugi is taking out of the fridge, he is going to make hamburgers.

Well, at least some things never changed. How much continued like for hamburgers weighs against all the rest though, is hard to say.

Stepping closer and leaning onto the counter, the spirit watches the elder version of his partner, while Yugi calls Grandfather Sugoroku. He's looked before – and compared – but it seems like the more he looks, the greater the differences are. Without a shirt, they're all obvious – and the tattoo is just superficial. The strength lining the body is another thing – the biggest thing is the ease with which the man endures his half naked state. Yugi would've been embarrassed, blushing, looking for a shirt at this point. The future-Yugi doesn't even seem to be missing one.

"What?" the man asks, glancing at him over his shoulder.

The spirit shakes his head, lowering his eyes. "I don't know," he admits, and glances back at Yugi who is just explaining to the phone that he's too tired to try and find a bus that still runs.

"You can look. I don't mind," the future-Yugi says, turning back to the simple food he's really going the long way to prepare – Yugi would've just shoved the things into a microwave, but the man seems to be intending to actually fry them properly in a pan.

 Sighing, the spirit folds his arms on the counter and then watches – wondering. Would his Yugi grow up to be like this one? Things are… different now. And will only get more different from here on – they're standing on the tip of the iceberg now and it's a long tumble down. Who knows what they'd find at the bottom, but he doubts – hopes, god he hopes so much – that it won't be the same as what the man found there.

"Do you think…. If the bit about our souls being halves, if that wasn't real, would you still feel the way you do?" he asks after a moment.

The man bows his head a bit and then shrugs his shoulders. "Probably," he says, his voice low. "It's… I don't think it would be possible for me to do anything else. Aside from the halves bit, we basically had our souls exist next to each other for a long while. After that…" the man sighs and turns to face him, looking pensive. "It's just that after that every other connection – physical, romantic, even mental – they all seriously pale in comparison."

"I guess they would," the spirit murmurs, frowning. "So, basically, I ruined you for everyone else."

Just as he realises how conceited that sounds, the man lets out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess so. Big time," he says and shakes his head. "I know it's probably all a bit too much for you – too much, too fast. And I want you to know that… I am not your Yugi."

"What is that supposed to mean?" the spirit asks, looking up with a frown.

"I'm not your partner," the future-Yugi says, smiling – it doesn't reach his eyes. "You have absolutely no obligations to me, no duties, nothing. We aren't connected in any way, when you think about it. And so, whatever I…" he trails away. "Whatever is going on in my head, it's not your fault. So you can just ignore it – and concentrate on the one you are connected to."

"Ignore it?" the spirit asks with disbelief. "How the hell am I supposed to do that – and why would I?" he points an accusing finger at him. "You _can't_ tattoo me on your back and quote ancient love songs at me, and expect me to ignore it."

"Maybe," the man says, his smile fading a bit. "But that… wasn't actually you."

"It was me to a point," the spirit disagrees, frowning. He's not _quite_ comfortable claiming what belongs to another version of him but… he feels like he _has to_. Not for himself, but for the future-Yugi. The man avoids too much, and he has so many excuses to hide behind and for some reason it's important not to let him have this one – not to let him hide behind the argument that _it was a different spirit_. It might've been… but that different spirit isn't here.

"Up until you appeared and changed the future here, I was the exact same as your spirit was," the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle says, determined and sure that whatever his _own_ alternate version might've thought about this, the other spirit would've agreed with him on this. "My past is his, isn't it? So you can't say it's not me. Or can you?"

The future-Yugi frowns a bit. "Mine had his memories," he says quietly, but it's somehow hesitant.

"And yet you loved him since the fire, maybe before that," the spirit answers, raising his eyebrows. "I might be going in a different direction. But the start was the same."

The man looks at him and then lets out a sigh, bowing his head a bit. "For the good of all of us, you should just let me distance myself from this," he mutters.

"It's for the good of all of us that I'm not," the spirit answers, smiling. It's not agreement and it's not forfeit, but it's still a small victory for him. "Weren't you supposed to be making food?"

"You just want me to turn around so that you can ogle my back," the man snorts at him.

"No. I can feel how hungry both of you are. But the back thing is a plus," the spirit admits, and smiles as the man turns with an amused shake of his head. Leaning down a bit and resting his chin on his folded arms, the spirit looks at the tattoo, the long lines of hieroglyphics, the intricate design of the pharaoh.

It's still sort of terrifying. But maybe it's a good sort of terrifying.

"Grandpa says not to let me sleep in too much because apparently I need to start getting used to waking up early for school," the younger Yugi says, coming to stand next to the spirit. "Are you making hamburgers? Excellent."

"I thought you'd approve," the man snorts without looking back. "And I am so not getting up early just to wake you up – I am sleeping at least until noon, and for all I care you can do the same."

"Hah, so you've kept some of your better sense as you've grown old," Yugi grins and then gives a sideways glance at the spirit and a shy smile.

The spirit hesitates for a moment and then shifts closer, wrapping an arm around his partner's waist and pulling him closer to his side. It too is nothing they haven't done before, but again it's different. Yugi goes a bit pink, bowing his head with embarrassed happiness, making the spirit smirk and lean closer, to press his lips against his partner's hair.

He could grow to like this.

"Stop being cute, you're giving me a toothache," the future Yugi says without even looking at them.

"Nope. You'll just have to learn to live with it," the spirit says grinning while his partner squirms a bit at his side, and he almost feels sure that everything will finally start working out.

Oh, god, there is still so much to think about, so much to work through, to consider – and after all that they need to try and find their ground again, figure where they stand in relation to each other and damn it all, the spirit isn't sure where he fits, or where Yugi fits – and it's giving him a headache just trying to figure out where the future-Yugi stands when it comes to _them_ and that worries him most of all, but….

They're finally going forward, rather than standing still – or going backwards. That's worth something. That's worth a lot.

"I can feel you thinking," Yugi murmurs while the spirit leans his forehead against his partner's hair, relishing both the closeness and it's new, strange, wonderful newness. "What are you thinking?"

"Only good thoughts," the spirit promises with a smile. Maybe later he'd let his partner take a peek, but right now he's satisfied with just being a bit hopeful for once.


	32. Can You Hear Me?

Tilting his head a bit to the side, Ryou rubbed a hand over his neck with a groan. He has been working too much again, and he'll definitely feel it in the morning – but it's only so many days until school starts, after which he won't have as much time as he'd like. Best to get as much of the diorama done now, while he has the time.

Lowering his hand, he looks over the table he had been working at seemingly non-stop ever since recovering from the injuries he had gotten during BattleCity. It's still very much unfinished – only about half of the terrain is ready and the whole area beyond the river, where the mountains will be, is still left to be added in – he hasn't even started making the landscape base, actually... but it looks pretty great, if he says so himself.

 _'And who says geekdom doesn't pay off?'_ he thinks, smiling and leaning his elbows on the side of the table, eying the vast expanse of the diorama. Once it was finished, it would encompass a big city with a palace on one side, with country side in the middle and then, behind the river, there would of course be the mountains. And it would be, without a doubt, his best work to date.

 _'There's still so much to do, but I think I'm about half done now,'_ Ryou muses, reaching to poke at one of the buildings of the city. They're all firmly placed, slotted onto their places on the hydrocal terrain. Once he had all the buildings in, he'd begin working on the mountains. And then, once he was done with painting in the details and adding in the terrain materials– which would take a while – he would fit the mountains in, add in the river and cover some of the surface area with sand, especially in places where the separate terrain was slotted. It'd be the first time he'd use actual loose sand on a diorama, but he's looking forward to trying.

And then, with those finishing touches done, he could start putting in the human figurines.

That'd be later though – there's only three days of holidays left, and there is no way he can finish landscaping before then, but he's hoping that he would be finished maybe in a few more weeks, working after school and during weekends. And while he can't work on the diorama while at school, he can put the finishing touches on the figurines during recess and such – they're mostly identical right now, nine tenths of them made all from the same mould, but with some paint and maybe a bit of delicate carving, he'll make them into individuals. And then, the more specific characters – the pharaoh, the priests, the thief….

Smiling to himself, Ryou just watches the diorama for a long while. It's a lot of work, but it would be so worth it, once it was finished and moved to the public side of the museum, for people to see.

 _'You don't have the time to waste, gawking. Get back to work,'_ a voice in the back of his head snaps at him and he sighs, shaking his head. True enough, he thinks back and then reaches for the latest building – a temple – he's working on, reshaping the bottom.

Working on the diorama has been good in other ways too. As happy as he had been when his father had suggested that maybe he'd like to do something for the museum and as much as Ryou likes working on miniatures, the reason he had started on it is somewhat selfish. It is a good excuse to avoid the others – Yugi and the rest.

Not that he doesn't like them – he does, he really does, they've been the best, the closest friends he has had in years, but… after Battle City, after what had happened _during_ Battle City… he has needed the time to himself, to think and put himself back together again – and more than that, he has really needed the distance.

Yugi has the bad habit of bringing the… _it_ out in Ryou. He keeps blacking out and finding himself in a worse situation afterwards – not to mention that these days it tends to mean that he finds himself also battered and bruised. And _cut_ too – the wound on his arm is still tender and it's going to leave a scar. And as much as Ryou is… used to it – it's been happening for so long – it's not like he enjoys it.

If he stays away from Yugi and the Millennium Puzzle and all the stuff that keeps happening around Yugi, maybe it won't happen again.

Yeah, right.

Sighing, Ryou turns to the tools lying scattered around the table's edges and taking one of the smaller carving knifes. Most of the shaping he does to the buildings is before baking them back at home, but they don't always come out right and don't fit their slots on the diorama terrain, so he's always doing a bit of carving on the side – right then, he needs to take a sliver off the bottom so that the temple would fit into its place.

As he works at it, very carefully taking tiny bits of the polymer clay off with the tip of the knife, he wonders what things will be like, once school starts. He'd be seeing Yugi and the rest on daily basis then. Maybe… maybe if he left the Ring home, nothing would happen? Maybe…

No. Of course not – he'd never dare to leave it behind. What if someone else puts it on – what if his father puts it on?

Hesitating for a moment, Ryou takes a last flake out before reaching and trying to see if the temple would fit its place. It's a snug fit, a bit too tight on one of the corners, but with a bit of force it snaps to its place, and testing it Ryou finds it firm enough.

"Alright," he says, running a finger over the round slots in front of the temple. "Next… the statues and then the obelisk, right." Reaching to take the plastic bag holding the latest batch of figurines, he picks out the statues from among the rest and lays them in a row in front of him.

But his mind is wandering now, and the presence of the Millennium Ring is heavy and hot against his chest, beneath his shirt.

He had once seen someone other than him put it on. Once, not that long after his father had given it to him. He had been stupid and young, worn it always on top of his clothing – so very proud of his new, pretty toy. A man had jumped at him when he had been on the way to home, pushed him down and ripped the Ring from his neck. Ryou still doesn't know why the man hadn't just taken off, why he had instead stopped to stare at the Ring and then had put it on – why not just go, run? It had been in the middle of the day, in broad day light….

The sound of the man's screams as the prongs had pierced his chest cavity still haunts Ryou. The police report said that the thief had fallen over, and the prongs had just happened to get lodged in his chest, two of which had punctured his lungs. Bad luck for the guy, good luck for the little kid who had gotten his necklace back. Nobody had believed or cared about what said kid had had to say about it later on.

And now it's just safer to keep the Ring where Ryou knows it's safe. Well, safe is pretty relative when it comes to the Ring – but for as long as it is on _him_ , it's not killing someone else.

Why Yugi had taken it from him during BattleCity– and why Yugi hadn't told him he had it… Ryou doesn't know. He can guess though. If anyone understands what's happening with the Ring, it's Yugi – he had probably done it thinking it would help somehow, but… how could it help, not knowing where the Ring is or, worse yet, knowing that _Yugi_ has it?

Yugi already has his own troubles with his own Millennium Item and Ryou doesn't want to add the troubles of the Ring on top of it. Maybe Yugi could use it, maybe Yugi is like him and the Ring wouldn't kill him, but… no.

Taking a deep breath, Ryou reaches to place one of the statues in its place, pushing the dark thoughts away. Despite everything, despite how much he wants to get rid of it, it's better that the Ring's always with him. It might hurt him and he might never sleep quite as easy as he'd like, but at least no one else is getting hurt.

It's better this way. Especially now that he has a legitimate reason to keeping his distance, keeping safely away.

 _'How naïve,'_ the voice in the back of his head says, but Ryou ignores it and instead places the rest of the statues in, before pausing to examine the obelisk. The bottom isn't quite as straight as he likes and it will stand crooked, so he takes out the knife again and gets to work. After the obelisk goes in, he spends a moment working at the walls surrounding the temple, then the stairs leading to the raised platform on which the temple stands, before moving onto the other buildings, one by one slotting them into their places.

Maybe he ought to have made the city a bit smaller – there are a _lot_ of buildings still to be made. "Ah well," he murmurs. It's too late now – and after all the work he’d had to put into the landscape to make sure that all the buildings would go into the right places, he is not all that willing to go back and redo it.

Now all the buildings he has made so far are in their places. Time to turn to other parts of the diorama, namely the mountains. Standing up from where he had been sitting, Ryou circles around the table, to its still empty and somewhat naked other side. He has a lot of space to fill – not as much as he had used for the city and the countryside, but plenty. Thirty by eighty centimetres, just for the mountains. Well, there was the beach, the ruins of a village, and then there'd be the top of the mountains, which would be mostly empty space… but how high to make them?

Humming, Ryou turned to take some of the wooden boards he has set ready for this, and begins fitting them into the empty space, which ones would fit. The whole diorama is composed of separate pieces that are slotted together and masked with paint and such – the mountains would be the same. That way the diorama could be, if the need arose, taken apart into pieces.

 _'There won't be any need – it'll never be moved,'_ the voice from the back of his head comments, and Ryou ignores it again, selecting three boards that fit together snugly, and then taking them to his worktable, to start the process of building up the mountains from paper and cardboard.

For a long while he works in silence. This is one of the parts he likes the most about building miniatures and dioramas, the shaping of the landscape. It's all rather simple, beneath the surface – he supports the sides of the wooden boards with cardboard, then starts to shape the mountains with thinner cardboard strips, crosshatching them. It's a bit trickier because he needs the landscape to be rocky – sloping hills are easier to make than cliffs – but after a bit of trial and error he finds the right way to do it, before filling out the _mountains_ with rolled up newspapers.

A bit of tinkering and detailing – and lots and lots of tape – he's about satisfied with the shape. The canyons came out nice and there's a good variation in the cliff heights, and the shape tapers down nicely towards what would be, in the finished diorama, the Nile.

 _'It almost makes up for all the other things you're so damn useless at,'_ the voice comments.

"Shut up," Ryou answers under his breath, reaching for the hydrocal and starting to prepare the mix, to cover the base structure of the mountains. "No one's asking you."

 _'Snippy, landlord, very snippy,'_ the voice answers with a cackle, but says nothing more.

 Sometimes, most of the time, Ryou can convince himself that he just has a bad-tempered subconscious and that's he's just hyper critical of himself – which is not a bad feature in someone who makes dioramas and games in his free time. Sometimes he can tell himself that it's just him in his head and nothing more, no one else.

And sometimes he can't escape the truth.

Gritting his teeth while soaking the paper towels in the hydrocal before starting to lay them carefully on the mass of paper and cardboard, Ryou tries and eventually succeeds in ignoring the Ring, in quieting down his furiously pounding heart. There's nothing dangerous here, no one that might get hurt, nothing that might cause him to black out. He's just making a diorama. Nothing more.

He's fine.

Everything's fine.


	33. Traps

To say that Yugi hadn't gotten much sleep would've been an understatement – he hadn't slept a wink since managing to convince his younger self that, damn it, the kid had his own room for a reason and no, they were not going to sleep in the same bed. Which, thank god, he had managed to do, but which hadn't helped him much in the long run, not in trying to get some sleep himself.

Sighing, the man rubs a hand over his face while staring out of his living room window. The sun rose about… two hours ago, maybe, and he's been staring at the early morning visage of Domino somewhat mindlessly since then, not even pretending to try and sleep.

And yeah, he's going to have a lovely day ahead of him – he's slightly hung over, more than slightly sleep deprived and, let's not forget _oh so screwed_. Because any moment now – or any hour now, since the kid obviously had managed to get some sleep – his younger self is going to wake up, and come out, and be _himself_ and if Yugi was weak the night before, he's down right pathetic now.

Once the kid woke up, Yugi would need to… do something about all this. He's not sure what, and he knows it won't be easy – his idiot of a younger self and Atemu will probably fight him tooth and nail, but he needs to do something _now_ rather than wait until it's too late. It doesn't need to be much – just enough to put some sort of barrier between him and them.

 Friendship could work. Or, hell, maybe he could convince his younger self to see him as an older brother, though, god, how twisted would that be? Still, there needs to be something. It doesn't have to be a complete detachment – at this point he doubts he could even manage it, and of course his younger self and Atemu would never stand for it. So maybe he can have _some_ of that connection. At this point just watching from the side-lines could be….

Well, really damned painful, but it'd be more than he had ever hoped to have and that's something. And it would be _better_ than the terrifying alternatives.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Yugi frowns and tries to push the thoughts away but they keep circling back to Atemu and his younger self, the way they had looked. His younger self, so shy and awkward, blushing as Atemu grips his shoulder, wraps an arm around his waist, pulls him close. So tentative, so shy, so raw and new and _beautiful_. And for all that Yugi has spent a good ten years having dreams and nightmares about something like that, seeing it… was worse. And better. And _worse_.

 God but it had been so tempting, just to walk over and breach through that thin veneer of newness and hesitation and just….

 _'No, stop it,'_ Yugi thinks and himself, opening his eyes and grimacing at the cheerful sunlight coming in through the blinds. It's almost funny how close he had come to ruining everything, and how many times – and thank god Atemu had asked to see the tattoo because seriously, having the spirit lying across him had been….

 _'Stop thinking about it, damn it,'_ the man hisses to himself and stands up, running a hand over his eyes with a sigh. He should be stronger than this, he should be better – he's practiced, he's self trained, he's… he should be at least a bit disciplined. The things he had gone through to become something like whole again – they should protect him now!

Yet here he stands, completely defenceless. And he can't _not_ remember. The feel of them is still there, ghost memories on his skin, and it doesn't help that he had been revved up for sex all day. It's a small miracle he hadn't done anything stupid. Or any more stupid than he already had.

Hissing slightly, Yugi paces along the length of space in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, throwing looks at the city as he does. He really needs to figure out what to say to his younger self and Atemu, to make them… to keep them a bit further away. They won't like it, but he can't deal with them getting that close anymore, not knowing what he does now, not knowing that Atemu....

Pausing in the midst of his pacing, Yugi stops to look outside, hoping that there'd be something, anything, that would help him. To think that the greatest struggle of his life would all be in his head – though on the other hand, that's where it's always been, hasn't it? Before, after, and now, god damn it all. Always in his head.

He's entertaining somewhat morbid thoughts about mental institutions and people in white coats poking him with needles when he hears the door opening in the hall past the kitchen. Tensing a bit, he listens to footsteps leading to the main bathroom, and door closing – not much after that, there's water running.

 _'Well damn,'_ he muses. And of course, for all the hours spent wondering and worrying over this, he has absolutely _nothing_ to say. _'Screwed. Here stands Mutou Yugi; completely, utterly damned,'_ he thinks and sits down on the floor with a sigh, keeping his eyes on the window. Maybe his younger self would just go back to bed?

Yeah, no such luck.

"Morning. I thought you were going to sleep until noon?" his younger self yawns in greeting walking to the kitchen and then down the steps to the living room. "How long have you been up?"

About twenty four hours now. Yugi shrugs. "Not long," he says, trying not to tense so obviously as his younger self walks closer. "Sleep well?"

"Um… yeah, more or less," the kid answers, falling to his knees right behind him and throwing arms around Yugi. The man nearly falls over as his younger self suddenly seems to put all his weight on his back, leaning onto him heavily. "The pillow was weird, my neck hurts."

"You poor baby," Yugi answers, trying to get back his balance – in more ways than one – before lifting his hands to loosen the hold on his neck to keep the teen from choking him. The ease of it is somehow scary – is this how it's going to be from here on? The kid just walks over and gets all over his personal space?

And as much as Yugi _tries_ to come up with a good and tactful way of telling the kid to back off, he can't come up with anything to actually say. The best thing he can come up with is, "you don't have the Puzzle on?" and it sounds uncertain even to him. It's true though – if his younger self had been wearing the thing, Yugi would've had a one corner or another digging holes through his shirt right now.

"I just woke up," his younger self answers, resting his chin on Yugi's shoulder and blinking blearily at the window. "And I was going to get a glass of water and go back to bed, before I saw you awake. You have a nice view."

"Yeah, I guess I do," Yugi murmurs, shifting a bit. The teen is warm and heavy and _weird_ against his back – and the arms around Yugi's neck are tight and soft all at once. Supple. In Yugi's own memories he didn't recall that – he recalls being too thin and somehow gangly despite being so freaking short. Knees and elbows and jutting collar bones. He doesn't remember his skin being soft.

"Why do you keep doing that?" his younger self asks.

"Doing what?"

"You go all tense, and then you relax, and then you go tense again. And you always feel like you're on the brink of springing into a mad dash or something," the kid says, ducking his head a bit. "It's almost like no one's ever touched you and that can't be it, not if you really do the sort of stuff I think you do."

Yugi chuckles a bit at that – it's a dry, strangled sound. How to explain to his foolish, innocent younger self how very… odd, how weird, how _bad_ this is? Not just the touching and the closeness but everything surrounded by it and most of all, above all, before all… how bad it is how much Yugi himself likes it?

"Go back to bed. It's early," Yugi says instead, lifting his hands to detach the kid's arms from around him.

"No," his younger self says. "No, I think you need to answer. You're thinking too hard and you're probably thinking of doing something stupid again and I think I've made my opinion about your stupid ideas clear."

"You do realise that you're basically calling yourself stupid?" Yugi asks, realising idly how tired he is. His eyes feel like sandpaper.

"Well, I never said I was perfect," his younger self says and shifts closer looking at him. "So. What's up now? And do I need to shout at you to make you see reason? Because if I do, I'm going to get that water glass now and get right on it."

Yugi laughs again. "I don't remember being this pushy," he murmurs, shaking his head. "And at your age I never would've dared to talk to anybody like that."

"You're not anybody. You're me," the kid says. "Stop avoiding stuff again. Tell me."

Should he? Shouldn't he? Maybe, maybe not. He doesn't know – there's this irrational part of his brain that still, after everything he's told or let the kid know, wants to protect his younger self from what he's become. Hide away the dirty bits, to keep them from spreading maybe. It doesn't work like that, he knows that – and the kid's pretty much protected against what Yugi became by the simple fact that he still has Atemu at his side.

His younger self is still whole – he doesn't need to scrape at the bottom of his own morality to try and come up with something to fill in the gaps with.

Taking a deep breath, Yugi glances at the kid. "What do you see happening here? I mean really, between you and him and… and me?" he asks. "After all that's said and done, it's still a freaking mess. A worse mess now. How do you think it will work out?"

His younger self considers it, and though for a moment Yugi is absolutely terrified that he'd say something horrible and unrealistic like _everyone will be happy_ or something of the sort, he doesn't. "I don't know," the present-Yugi admits, looking past him and at the window. "I don't know exactly what I'm feeling, I don't know what I want from this – I just want us to be together and not apart because that just makes things miserable for all of us. I want to be with my other self, and I want you to be with us and not off somewhere alone being gloomy. It's… not a good answer maybe, but it's a start, isn't it?"

"Hm," Yugi answers, not sure what to say. For a moment he's so tempted to try and bullshit his way through it, but… that hasn't gotten him anywhere yet, has it? "The problem is that I want a lot more than that," he says. "I want things that I shouldn't, that aren't okay."

The present-Yugi tenses a bit and then relaxes. "The… other preference?" he asks hesitantly.

"That too. But mainly it's the whole issue," Yugi says, closing his eyes and, yeah, okay, fuck it all. "I said that I'm a horrible pervert and yeah, that not really far off the mark, especially when I compare myself to you. I've been… very… comfortable with that part of myself a bit too long to stop now. And here's the thing; around you two I'm constantly tempted."

"…Okay," his younger self says slowly and to his credit, he doesn't let go. "And you think that is a bad thing?"

Yugi opens his mouth to say something snappy before reconsidering it and shaking his head. "Yugi," he says instead, looking at kid. "When you put aside the mysticism of all this, you're left with three facts. One, I am ten years older than you. Two, you are underage. And three, we're technically related by blood."

"My other self is thousands of years older than both of us, and technically dead," his younger self points out, but the look on his face is pensive rather than disagreeing. "Next to that…."

"Yeah, he lives through _you_ ," the man shakes his head. "I'm having a harder and harder time –" he stops and sighs before lifting his hands to try and detach the kid. "You two come as a package deal, that goes both ways and it is really messing with my head. And those three points still count, regardless what he, what your other self is or isn't."

"Right," the present-Yugi says, tightening his hold. "Okay, well, this is how I see it. One, you're me. Two, you're me. And three, you're _actually_ me. So how does any of that matter?"

Yugi nearly chokes. _Oh god_ the kid isn't actually arguing against him, is he? "It matters," he forces out. "It matters to me." And it would matter to the authorities too – but mainly it matters to Yugi because it's making him feel horrible, twisted, _evil_. And more than that, it's making him feel out of control – to have this ball of _want_ inside him and being completely, utterly unable to stop it.

"It matters," he says. "Because if that's where this is going…."

His younger self is quiet for a moment. "I haven't really thought that far, but…" he hesitates and then detaches himself, instead shifting forward so that he's sitting next to Yugi, a bit in front of him, facing him. "You're tempted to do something, probably something, um, sexual," he says, flushing bright red but pushing forward, "Or whatever. So. Let's say something happens and we say _no_. Would you still do it, whatever it is?"

Yugi's eyes widen slightly at that. "No, of course not!" he says, shifting backwards a bit. "I would never – no way – I mean, I couldn't –!"

"Thought so," the kid says, shrugging his shoulders. "I won't pretend I get what's going on in your head. It's probably all messed up and even you don't get it. But you don't see how you are, from this angle. You're so careful, all the time – it's like you think we're made of porcelain. And for all that… other stuff, you'll have to do a lot more than say stupid things about yourself for me to believe that you'd actually hurt my other self – or me."

Yugi bows his head a bit at that and then sighs. "That still doesn't change anything," he murmurs. "And it doesn't make this, whatever this is, right. I'm twenty seven, you're seventeen and –"

"And we're the same person," his younger self says, shrugging and then lifting his knees up and hugging his bent legs. "Sort of. Besides, you're thinking too far ahead. I'm not sure if I… I mean, I feel something obviously, for my other self, and you're part of that, but… I want to figure out what that something actually is, before I do anything else. So this, whatever this is?" he motions between them. "It's not physical."

"You keep attaching yourself to my person, how is that not physical?" Yugi groans, running a hand over his eyes. God this whole conversation – he's suddenly very aware of this terrible urge to jump out of a window.

"Oh," the kid says, his eyes widening. " _That_ too? I mean… that's tempting? _How_?"

Yugi groans again. "I hate you," he says, more to himself than to his younger self. "It just is, trust me. And I would really appreciate if you could stop attacking my personal space at inopportune moments."

"Aww," his younger says, disappointed. "But you always look like you really need a hug."

"Right. Well, what I don't need are awkward boners at the clothing store, so please, just stop it."

Well, he thinks as his younger self flushes bright pink. The look of utter mortification doesn't quite make the whole thing worth the embarrassment – but it's a step in the right direction.

"Oh," is all his younger self eventually says, startled, unable to meet his eyes.

"Yeah," Yugi answers, wishing there was a hard surface nearby so that he could bang his head against it. "So there."

"Uh… well… whoa," his younger self murmurs, and then lets out an awkward little laugh, scratching his cheek. "Just… out of curiosity – when exactly, outside the clothing store –"

"No, no way, I'm not doing this with you," Yugi answers, waving a hand at his younger self. "Just go back to bed. Or jump out of the window. Something, anything, just get the _hell_ out of my face."

His younger self laughs a bit more at that. "It's kinda flattering when you think about it."

"Oh, just _shut up_!"

The past-Yugi laughs a bit more, smothering his chuckles against his knees for a while. And okay, Yugi has to admit he could've gotten a worse reaction out of the kid – and maybe he's lucky the kid _hadn't_ jumped out of the window.

"That doesn't change things," his younger self adds after a while, once his chuckles have died down. "Awkward though it may be. You're still part of this. Somehow we'll… we'll make it work. Right?" he asks quietly. "Stop… backing out. You said selflessness doesn't pay off. So stop it, at least a bit. Be a bit selfish."

"That's easy for you to say," Yugi sighs and frowns at the floor for a moment before shaking his head. "Well, you'll get that wish anyway. I don't think I can leave at this point. Maybe, but…" he shakes his head. Having seen his younger self, held against Atemu's side, so sweet and gentle and so fragile and… "I guess I already am selfish. I want to see more. I want to see what becomes of him. And you."

"And you too," his younger self says.

"And me too, I guess," Yugi agrees, and rubs his forehead. "And now I think I'm going to go back to bed and sleep for a while. You going to hang around much longer?"

"Hm. I… need to think some stuff through, so I might take a walk, but… I think I want to stay," his younger self says. "It's two more days until school starts. Can I stay until then?"

Yugi considers it and then shrugs. "Whatever you want," he says, and sits up, holding out his hand to his younger self. "My home is yours. Rather literally, in this case." And honestly, has he actually been able to deny his younger self anything so far? Aside from moving out, he's folded about everything else – and he sort of folded about moving out too.

The kid nods and takes the hand, letting Yugi pull him to his feet. "I think we can all be happy," he says. "With ourselves and with each other. We just need to figure out how."

"The problem with that is that it takes most people their whole lives to figure out how to do that," Yugi says. "But it's nice that you have faith."

His younger self looks at him sadly. "I wish you did too," he says, patting Yugi's shoulder and then heading back to the kitchen. "We'll figure this out," he says over his shoulder as he heads for the hall, and for his own room. "Just give us time."

"You can have it all, every last bit of it," Yugi says, low, listening to the door opening and closing as his younger self retreats to his own bedroom. Then, shaking his head, he heads to the master bedroom where he collapses on the unmade bed and makes a valiant effort at shutting his brain off.

He dreams of Atemu and the way he had looked in the mockery of Memphis Bakura had created – the very last time when the spirit had felt like Yugi's _other self_.


	34. Starvation

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle follows his partner as Yugi walks along a path across the downtown park of domino. The weather isn't all that good – it's cloudy, a bit windy and looks like it's going to rain – but Yugi's not there for the weather so the spirit doesn't comment on it.

It's been a while since they've exchanged words, but it's been a good sort of silence – nice, contemplative and close. Or maybe that's just the fact that they walk closer than they usually do, arm in arm, and for all that the spirit knows that it will look strange to anyone witnessing it – to them it'll just look like Yugi is holding his arm strangely for no reason – neither of them pay it much mind.

It's nice. A bit confusing, new, _terrifying_ and the spirit knows the quiet is just an illusion and there is a storm raging underneath the silence, but still. It's nice.

 _'You know, for all that I'm sure... I'm not really,'_ Yugi's thoughts suddenly reach him, almost startling after the peaceful quiet.

"About what?" the spirit asks, turning his eyes away from one of the cherry trees and to his partner.

 _'About any of it, really,'_ Yugi admits. _'He's right, that future self of mine. I've been… I'm not sure if I've been hiding stuff, or avoiding it, or just… not acknowledging it or what, but… I know what I feel, whatever it is, it isn't new. It's been there for a while, I've gotten used to it, somehow, but at the same time… it feels new.'_

The spirit ducks his head a bit, smothering a smile. "I know," he answers and gods, he will never get used to that. Yugi is radiant with feelings, but still the concept that _this_ is there, and aimed at him, it keeps surprising him. And it's always a pleasant surprise. "It's okay. I don't…. It's all new and weird and I don't expect anything from you, so, please don't… push yourself."

Yugi makes a sound that's a sigh and a chuckle at the same time. _'You know, it's so weird. Here's him, the future me and he's been… something with you_ for years. _And here's me, and I got that too. But neither of us can say it. Have you noticed?'_ he asks, glancing at the spirit.

The spirit shrugs. He has – despite the sheer power of the future-Yugi's feelings, the only time he had actually named the emotion directly… had been in the ancient Egyptian love song. And the spirit is pretty certain that the man can't call what he feels by its name even in his _own head_. His partner can't say it either – though of course, he isn't sure about it yet, but the fact remains.

Neither of the two Yugi's has yet said the word _love_ to him. It almost seems like they just can't.

He can, though. It comes easily for him – at this point it's a bit hard to _not_ say it, actually, but then again he has very little to lose by admitting it. He's been painfully, _pitifully_ aware of his own feelings from the very first moments. The only reason he never said anything and was perfectly content in keeping silent was because, to him at least, Yugi had seemed to like Anzu so much, his oldest and, in the beginning, closest friend.

"It's alright," the spirit says. "Whatever you feel is fine with me." Because he knows with almost agonising clarity that whatever it is… is powerful. The future-Yugi is walking, talking – and often rather dramatic – proof of that.

Yugi doesn't seem satisfied with that though. _'It's not fine,'_ he thinks back. _'I can't even think it. Why is it so hard? Especially after you… it should be easier, shouldn't it? So why can't I think it, why can't I even consider it – and why can't he? He has had ten years, and he can't think it.'_

"It's okay, really," the spirit chuckles, leaning in and pressing a kiss on his partner's temple. _'You know I love you, and you don't want me to go. That's more than enough for me.'_

The sound Yugi makes is strangled, embarrassed and displeased, but he leans into the contact almost greedily, closing his eyes and then almost stumbling because he's not looking where he goes. The spirit laughs and helps his partner straighten up.

"Come on, let's sit down before we fall down," he says, and guides his partner to a nearby park bench where they sit down, hand in hand.

 _'How come… how can you say it so easily?'_ Yugi asks quietly, linking their fingers together and staring at his lap. _'You don't seem to have any problems with this at all.'_

"I do. Just… not the same sort you have," the spirit admits, and he really wants to reach out and brush Yugi's bangs out of the way, to see his eyes, but that might be distracting and this is important so he doesn't. "I've never had any doubts about what I feel. I've never questioned it. And I guess this is actually a bit of a relief. It's… I won't say easier but it's less… okay, it is easier, having it out in the open."

Yugi snorts. _'God I wish I had your ease of mind,'_ he thinks shaking his head and then frowns.

"Don't be fooled," the spirit murmurs, looking down at their hands. "I haven't felt this scared since the fire, and this is infinitely more difficult. There are so many ways this could go wrong, there are so many variables and there is your future self and…" he trails away, glancing up and at the Puzzle around Yugi's neck. "I really don't want this to go wrong."

 _'Me neither,'_ Yugi answers back and touches the puzzle, sensing his stare. Then he shakes his head again. _'You never had any doubts,'_ he then repeats, and looks up. _'What does that mean? You make it sound like… like it's been a while. A long while.'_

The spirit laughs, looking away, embarrassed and a bit giddy. "When you solved the puzzle for the first time, I got to glimpse your memories, your heart. I saw… well, obviously I didn't see all, I didn't see your first day of high school and I knew nothing of your preferences so some things must've been omitted, but I saw almost everything. You were…."

Dazzling. Yugi was and is a warm, glowing spirit, kind and selfless and, despite all the troubles he has saying the word, loving. Even while at his weakest his kindness was strong, and he can – and had – put himself in the way of harm just for others, sometimes even people he wasn't that close to. Jonouchi and Honda in the beginning hadn't been anything like friends to Yugi, but he had defended them.

And Yugi had accepted him. Despite how it scared him and how confused he had been – and he had known something was wrong from the very first night – he had been patient and kind. Why Yugi hadn't just taken the puzzle off after what had happened that first night, why he hadn't broken it, the spirit _still_ doesn't know. But he thinks secretly that maybe… just maybe, Yugi had already been able to sense him, a bit. Maybe he had felt what it was like for the spirit. And that he had already decided somewhere in his subconscious, in his soul and heart, to help.

The spirit looks away, trying not to think back and unable to stop himself. He still avoids sleep because of the visions that come back to him, of the confusion and terror and the never ending darkness – the endless corridors of the maze that is the puzzle, that never lets him escape. It had been bad, in those first weeks – the puzzle had still been so wild and so rough, Yugi hadn't yet tamed it properly and it had been fighting him. It still does, to certain extent - even now the spirit can _never_ get out on his own.

Every time he comes out, either as a spectre or in control of Yugi's body… it is because Yugi always opens the door for him. He does it without knowing – the spirit's more or less sure that Yugi doesn't even realise the amount of control he has over the process, how easy it would be for him to just slam those doors shut, to lock the latches. And yet, they remain open. And, even more than that, the spirit doubts Yugi has any idea how grateful the spirit always feels, when he does. Without Yugi, he'd be trapped.

That's not why he loves his partner, though. Not entirely, anyway. It's not that Yugi has the ability, or that he does it… it's that he chooses to do it, somewhere in his heart Yugi always makes the choice whether or not to release him and he's restrained the spirit only once and that had been to save Kaiba's life. Which only accentuates the rest of it.

Knowing that, and knowing the rest of it, the little things Yugi does – how he plays silly games with his socks, how he enjoys all games, even ones made for children, how honestly and truly he cares about not just those close to him but _everyone_ , how selfless he is… really, how could the spirit not love him? It's almost too easy at times.

"Your soul is breathtakingly beautiful," the spirit finally settles on saying and it's so _inadequate_ that he feels ashamed. "And I know something about souls, so you can trust me on it."

 _'You know something about being utterly sappy too, apparently,'_ Yugi laughs, embarrassed and delighted, bowing his head with a pleased blush on his face. _'Since I solved the puzzle, huh?'_

"Yeah. Maybe a bit before, honestly – you worked so long at it that you've influenced the puzzle some," the spirit says, shrugging. A lot, actually. If Yugi wanted to, he could waltz right through the maze and it would bend backwards to oblige him – if it could. The spirit has actually been wondering how come it _hasn't_ yet, but he knows now, thanks to the future-Yugi.

Because of his memories, that even now are keeping the puzzle locked. While Yugi has mastered the Puzzle, and the Puzzle controls the spirit, the spirit himself hasn't mastered his own memories, so….

Yugi says nothing for a long while, his eyes thoughtful as he stares down. When he finally does look up, he seems to have made a decision. _'After the fire, I told you that I'd share my life and memories with you. I still want to do that.'_

The spirit smiles and leans in, resting his forehead against his partner's. _'I know,'_ he thinks back, closing his eyes. _'And I thank you for it.'_

 _'It's still not enough, is it?'_ Yugi thinks, shifting, his hand moving in the spirit's hold as if it wants to lift and the spirit knows his partner wants to embrace him – but he cannot out in the public. So instead Yugi's fingers tighten their hold, his thumb stroking the back of the spirit's hand as unnoticeably as he can. _'My other self. I….'_

 _'You don't have to push yourself. It's fine,'_ the spirit thinks at him when he trails of. _'I love you. Isn't that enough?'_

 _'No, no it isn't,'_ Yugi thinks, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath - steeling himself. Then, opening his eyes, he stares right into the spirit's eyes and the gaze is powerful, his eyes shining with colour and determination. _'I…'_ he falters and then lets out a frustrated laugh. _'Damn it! Why is this so hard?!'_

"Partner!" the spirit says, surprised at the other's vehemence. "Please, it's alright, you don't need to –"

 _'Yes I do! Because I – oh damn this to hell!'_ Yugi groans, while the spirit stares at him in utter astonishment, not used to hearing this sort of language from his partner. The occasional curse word maybe, yes, Yugi is capable of them… but not with this sort of force and anger. It's almost more surprising than the fact that Yugi actually, really does have _trouble_ saying the word love. Yugi, of all people, can't say it? How does that even make sense?

"Okay, okay, calm down," The spirit says, squeezing his partner's hand. "Maybe that's… not it then?" he asks, and quickly tells himself that no, it isn't a let-down in any way – he is perfectly fine with anything Yugi might feel for him. Yugi is close, holding his hand in his and obviously trying to convey something important, that's enough, that's more than enough. It is. It has to be.

 _'No,'_ Yugi sighs, his shoulders slumping a bit and despite the defeat in his posture the spirit is almost glad because Yugi is facing downwards now and not looking at his face. _'No,'_ Yugi thinks again. _'That's not it. Let me think this through.'_

"Of course. Take all the time you need," the spirit whispers, stroking his partner's hand gently, telling himself to be patient. He loves Yugi, he really does, and anything Yugi might give him, be it simple tolerance and nothing else, is more than enough.

His love has been one-sided for a long while. He's… content with it remaining just like that.

Yugi is quiet for a long while, his thoughts flickering and shifting beneath the surface, ticking at the spirit's mind like butterfly's wings – but he refrains from looking, letting his partner have his thoughts in privacy. For a moment he tries to look away from Yugi, to give him that privacy too, but he can't – there is nothing nearly so important anywhere in the park as what Yugi's conclusion might end up being. So he watches, as patient as he can manage.

And he wonders, idly, if the future-Yugi has had to think it through too. The man hasn't said the word either – so maybe he hasn't thought about it. Or he has, and has decided against speaking the name of what he feels. Why? Why was that one word a taboo – when nothing else seemed to be.

Nothing, but the spirit's own name and memories, maybe.

 _'Will you leave me?'_ Yugi suddenly asks, startling the spirit.

"What?" he asks, shocked.

 _'Will you leave me?'_ Yugi repeats, and looks up from beneath his eyebrows, his eyelashes long and hiding the usual highlights of his eyes. _'The decision, one day, once you remember… will you leave me then? Like my future self was left behind?'_

"I don't want to. You have to believe me; it's the very last thing I want!" the spirit says quickly, shifting closer. "As things stand now, I don't want to go anywhere, I never want to leave you." But, of course, he can't promise things will remain like that if and when he does remember. Would he choose to go? He doesn't know. "I don't want to leave you," he repeats again, and right then and there it's the absolute truth.

Yugi eyes him silently for a long while. _'I guess… I'm a bit scared that if I say it, I'll lose it and then… then it'll be just gone,'_ he says, looking down again. _'A bit silly, isn't it? My future self never said it, and he still lost it.'_

The spirit blinks, not really comprehending. "Lost what?"

Yugi smiles, awkward and embarrassed. _'I don't know. My heart, I guess,'_ he says, not looking up as he shrugs his shoulders. _'I don't know. It just feels like there's a limit to how much of it I can spare, and… and if you leave me then the part I give to you, it'll be... gone with you.'_

"Oh, partner," the spirit sighs, leaning in and closing his eyes as their foreheads touch again. It shouldn't hurt. It shouldn't – but it does.

 _'But… I guess it's a bit too late now, isn't it?'_ Yugi thinks and then takes a deep breath once more, drawing on some inner strength. The spirit smiles, not letting his hopes raise up again – Yugi doesn't want to relinquish that bit of himself and it's fine. It's precious and should only be given to someone who really can cherish it, someone who's going to be there, who isn't standing on such shaky ground. Especially in Yugi's case – Yugi deserves all the security one can muster and for all that he wants to promise that he will be there, the spirit can't make such a vow and --

 _'I love you,'_ Yugi's thought pierces through and the _word_ comes out in a rush, like a release of some inner pressure.

The spirit opens his mouth and tries to think, but he's suddenly stunned, first with surprise and then disbelief and then, as his mind rewinds itself, he inhales sharply. Without warning, he's suddenly too overcome by, by… what? Happiness so powerful it's almost like pain, and maybe a bit of horror because, because… suddenly the word weights so much, and maybe he doesn't deserve it at all, but gods, he wants it, and it's there, _Yugi said it to him_ ….

And he feels guilty because maybe he shouldn't have pushed the matter, should've let Yugi just put it aside – it would be better, if one day he were to leave Yugi alone – and yet, and yet… he _can't_. He can’t stop himself from being deliriously, greedily happy. Despite knowing the price the word had for Yugi. Especially knowing the price.

Helpless, the spirit smiles, laughs, and lifts his free hand to cradle his partner's cheek, and he wants to embrace him, hold him close, lift him up and never let go.

 _'I love you,'_ Yugi thinks again, and it comes easier this time, less a rush and more a relief. _'I love you,'_ he thinks, and it's a sweet respite, a sigh, a surrender, a victory. _'I love you,'_ he thinks one last time, the fourth time, and lets a giddy, helpless laugh escape.

There are people passing by and they're probably staring at Yugi strangely, as he sits there seemingly alone, bowing his head and giggling. The spirit doesn't care, even if they probably think his partner is strange, even if this might damage his partner's reputation. He doesn't care because Yugi _loves_ him.

"Gods, partner," the spirit whispers, stroking a thumb across Yugi's cheek. He leans back a bit to look at Yugi's flushed, embarrassed face, and then has to lean in again, to nuzzle in close. If he had been able to, he would've been inhaling Yugi's scent greedily, soaking up his body warmth, and kissing him, tasting him, drawing him with every sense he could bring to bear.

But he can't, so he just holds close and basks in the moment.

 _'And he… my future self loves you too,'_ Yugi thinks and it should break the moment, and yet somehow it doesn't. The spirit nods, still close, his eyes shut, his nose pressed against Yugi's cheek. He can feel Yugi's smile against his own cheek, shy and determined all at once. _'We need to do something about that.'_

"Yes we do," the spirit agrees. "But how?"

Yugi's smile widens and it's maybe a bit mischievous now. _'Well… I might have some ideas about that.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it.


End file.
